


The League of Extraordinary Rockstars

by Cheshyr, SailorLestrade



Category: Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Book - Mötley Crüe & Neil Strauss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Female Steven Adler, Fluff and Angst, Genderswap, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:15:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24299464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheshyr/pseuds/Cheshyr, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorLestrade/pseuds/SailorLestrade
Summary: LA is a hub for music and mutants, making it the perfect place for Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, and countless other mutant musicians to call home. But it’s not all easy, especially when it comes to finding a decent place to live. So what better solution than moving in together in the mansion of an immortal?Love, drama, and super powers. If nothing else, it’ll be interesting.
Relationships: Axl Rose/Sebastian Bach, Steven Adler/Duff McKagan/Izzy Stradlin, Tommy Lee/Nikki Sixx
Comments: 53
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

Los Angeles. The city of angels. Also, the highest per capita mutant population in the United States. With it’s history of welcoming minorities, it was no surprise. And West Hollywood was the hot spot. Humans hanging out with mutants, getting their cigarettes lit by a bass player who could control fire, getting their joints from a singer who could control pot. Things were great in LA.

Well, pretty much. They painted a picture perfect world of mutants living in the hills with the rich and famous, when in reality, they were living in small apartments that had more mice than people in them. But the one nice thing about LA? It was usually sunny. Rarely a cloud in the sky. Stevie Adler smiled as she looked up at the sky.

And then there was the honking horn.

“Get out of the street you bitch!” A guy screamed from his car. Stevie sighed and shook her head, crossing the street towards the recording studio. Yeah, LA was a great city.

“What was that about?” Izzy asked from his designated smoking spot.

“Asshole is impatient,” Stevie shrugged. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Slash is hiding because Axl is screaming at someone on the phone,” Izzy explained. “Duff’s not here yet. But Baz is, and he’s getting a kick out of watching Axl trying to avoid going supersonic.”

“Is there a betting pool started yet on if he’ll lose it?” Stevie grinned.

“I’m giving him about ten minutes,” Izzy smirked. “I think it’s Neil he’s yelling at.” Stevie rolled her eyes.

A cold gust of wind blew past them, causing Stevie to shiver. It seemed to get darker all of a sudden, a cloud covering the sun, but before she could comment on it, Izzy was looking past her with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh-oh, looks like someone’s in a bad mood.”

Sure enough, when she followed his gaze, she saw a very sour looking Duff stalking towards them. The weather witch looked deep in thought, a scowl on his face, which made sense as he usually didn’t lose control of his powers like this, especially since he knew Stevie needed as much sun as she could get.

“Hey, stormcloud!” Izzy shouted, getting the bassist’s attention, “Reel it in, motherfucker! The weather report said clear skies today!”

Blinking, Duff seemed to notice the shift in weather for the first time, “Ah, fuck,” the clouds quickly dissapated, the wind dying down as the sunshine returned. “Sorry guys,” he sighed.

“What’s got you all worked up?” Stevie asked.

Running a hand through his hair, Duff glared, “A fucking pipe burst in my apartment. The place was shitty enough with cockroaches crawling all over me, now I’ve got two inches of water covering everything.”

“Hey, if you need a place, Tracii moved out so Slash and I have an empty room,” Stevie told Duff. “I might be able to dry your stuff out. I’m sure Nikki would help.”

“Yeah, because you know that Axl loves those guys hanging around,” Izzy laughed. “Let’s go inside.” The three of them headed in, seeing Baz and Slash, but no Axl.

“He’s in his tantrum hole,” Baz laughed, pointing at the soundproof room. “He’ll be out in a minute once he calms down.” Stevie headed over to Slash to talk to him, leaving Izzy and Duff standing there together. A few moments later, Slash was hugging Duff.

“Roomie!” Slash laughed.

“I see Stevie talked to you,” Duff chuckled.

“Dude, this will be awesome!” Slash grinned, “Now I’ll have my two favorite drinking buddies in the same house!”

“This is a terrible idea,” Izzy muttered to himself.

“What’s a terrible idea?” Axl finally emerged from his designated anger room, with a look on his face that said he was very consciously keeping himself calm.

“Duff is gonna move in with Stevie and me!” Slash exclaimed, “Apparently his place is underwater, and we’ve got some space since Tracii moved out, so it’s perfect!”

“...Yeah, I’m gonna agree with Izzy and say that’s a terrible idea,” Axl shook his head as he moved to lean against Sebastian’s side, “The three of you? In one place?” 

“It feels like a threat to public safety,” Izzy chimed in.

“You’re just jealous cause you know we’re gonna be the most fun house on the strip now,” Stevie teased. 

Izzy smiled tensely, looking briefly between Duff and Stevie before glancing away.

“Wait a minute, I thought Motley Crue had the most fun house on the strip,” Baz pointed out before Axl glared at him. “Sorry babe, but you gotta admit, they know how to throw a party.”

“I think that Nikki’s party trick of catching himself on fire is annoying and overused,” Axl huffed. “And you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Okay, before Sebastian and Axl start fighting to make up later, can we record some music?” Stevie asked with a laugh. “Duff, we’ll go get your stuff that can be salvaged. I’ll call Tommy to come help.” Axl groaned but Stevie pretended she didn’t hear.

“Think you can get through a couple songs without shattering the glass?” Slash joked at Axl. The singer merely flipped him off as they finally made their way into the booth. Stevie took a seat behind the drums, not noticing Duff and Izzy glancing at her. Slash just sighed and got his guitar.

Baz smiled as he listened to Axl sing, and soon, they had a couple rough tracks down before their studio time was up. Stevie bounced to the payphone to call Tommy while Slash, Izzy, and Duff talked.

“So...you’re moving in with Stevie…” Izzy said, staring at Duff.

“And Slash,” Duff pointed out. “Not just Stevie.”

“Right, right…”

“Gee, way to make a guy feel loved,” Slash pouted.

Izzy rolled his eyes, shoving Slash’s shoulder lightly, glad for the break in the tension as the three chuckled. At that moment, Stevie jogged back over, giving a thumbs up as she smiled.

“Alright! We’re all set! Tommy should be here s-”

“HEY GUYS!”

A gust of wind swirled around them as Tommy skidded to a stop beside them, his hair a wild mess around his face. The speedster gave Stevie a quick hug as he chattered, “Stevie told me what happened, that sucks dude!” He gave Duff a sympathetic pat on his shoulder, “I’ll totally help though! Nikki’s dealing with Vince right now, apparently he’s having a bitch fit cause of some phone call or something, I dunno, but he’ll be by to help out later. Anyway, how are the rest of you guns?”

Tommy gave Slash a quick hug, but when he moved to throw his arm around Izzy’s shoulder, his arm fell right through the other man, sending the drummer stumbling forward. Slash, Duff, and Stevie laughed as Tommy pouted at Izzy’s deadpan expression.

“Oh come on, man, don’t be like that!”

The next couple hours were spent bickering and joking as they waded through Duff’s apartment to clear out his meager belongings, Tommy running between the flooded space and Slash and Stevie’s apartment while Duff chewed out his landlord until he got his deposit back.

Duff came back to the soggy apartment to see Stevie standing there, holding a book and smiling. He raised an eyebrow until he saw what she was looking at, then he tried to run to grab it.

“Duff, you were so cute!” Stevie laughed.

“Let me see!” Tommy ran by, grabbing the book. As he did, a photo fell out of the back. Slash picked it up. “Duff, you were a dorky looking kid.”

“Says the guy who was wearing tights in a picture his mom showed me the first time we met!” Duff pointed out.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Tommy groaned.

“At least you don’t look as dorky as Stevie,” Slash teased, showing Tommy a picture of Stevie asleep next to Duff, her head on his shoulder, and most definitely drooling. “I’m just surprised you didn’t burn up the camera. Either with your sunshine crap or being so ugly.”

“Love you too,” Stevie rolled her eyes. “Why do you have that?”

“Just liked it,” Duff shrugged.

“Okay, well, do you guys mind like, getting out of here?” Tommy asked. “Everything that can be saved has been saved, and I can feel the mold growing on us as we stand here talking about how I’m much cuter than everyone else.” He smirked. “And Nikki said he’s gonna try to meet us over at your place to help dry things out.”

Nodding in agreement, the group made their way over to the apartment that housed Stevie, Slash, and now Duff. The place wasn’t much better than Duff’s old apartment, but it was dry, so they couldn’t complain. Plus, the bassist was happy to note that there were significantly less cockroaches than his old place contained (not no cockroaches, that’d be asking for too much, but less at least). 

On top of that, despite being small and dingy, Slash and Stevie still managed to make the place feel like a home. Cracks and stains on the walls were covered by posters, fliers, and magazine cutouts of their favorite bands, the pictures layered over each other excitedly. Their garbage dump couch was covered in an old tie dyed bed sheet to mask the tears. The kitchen counters held rows and rows of empty bottles, some of them containing the dried remains of long dead flowers that would probably give Vince a heart attack if he saw them. A lingering scent of cigarette smoke clung to the whole apartment, there was trash everywhere, and a pile of records reached halfway up the wall next to a thrift-store record player.

Duff immediately felt right at home. 

“So, your room is right over here,” Slash led the way down the short hallway. They passed a bathroom that had definitely seen better days, a bedroom covered in KISS merch that simply had to be Stevie’s, and another door covered in caution tape that was closed tight.

“That’s Slash’s room,” Stevie leaned over to whisper in Duff’s ear, “He thinks I don’t know about the python he’s got in there, but at least he keeps it contained.”

Shuddering at the idea of being in the same space as a large snake, Duff debated about turning right back around and returning to the lake of his apartment, but before he could, he was being steered into the final bedroom. It was a little smaller than his old place, but it’s not like he was picky. Tommy had piled his stuff along the walls in two groups- the stuff that needed drying, and the stuff that was okay.

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door. “Oh, that’s probably Nikki!” Tommy cried enthusiastically, and with a gust of wind was off to the door.

Sure enough, Nikki was there with Vince and Mick in tow. Nikki had a couple pizza boxes in hand, Vince had a sour look on his face, and Mick, well, was Mick.

"We brought pizza!" Nikki announced. "Two large supremes!"

"Did you get something not supreme?" Stevie quizzed.

"Just pick off the black olives and shit," Nikki teased. Mick smacked the back of his head and handed Stevie a pepperoni pizza.

"Here you go," He grumbled. "Nikki just likes to tease you."

Sticking her tongue out at the bassist, Stevie happily accepted her pizza, the group gathering in the living room to take a break before tackling Duff’s damp belongings. As they ate, Vince kept scowling, pouting, and muttering under his breath. Finally, Slash sighed dramatically.

“Alright Neil, I’ll bite: what the fuck is your problem?”

Glaring, the blonde singer huffed, “My problem is that your singer is an asshole!”

“Are we supposed to be surprised or something? This isn’t news,” Stevie chimed in.

But Vince continued as if she hadn’t said anything, “That bastard stole my favorite pants, I just know it, and when I called to _nicely_ ask for them back-”

“He wasn’t remotely nice. I was there,” Nikki contributed.

“-he had the fucking audacity to say, ‘why would I ever steal your ugly-ass pants?’! Like, we all know that my style is MILES better that his garbage, midwest grunge look!”

“Don’t let Izzy hear you talking like that,” Duff snickered.

Meanwhile, Stevie’s brow was furrowed in thought, “Which pants are these?”

“My acid-wash jeans with the white stitching on the side,” Vince answered, sighing wistfully.

“Oooooh, shit,” Stevie grimaced, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I gave those to Axl after last laundry day.” Slash and Stevie’s apartment building was the only one in the group that had a laundry facility on-site, so once a week all the rockers showed up on their doorstep with a bag of dirty clothes and handfuls of coins for them. Slash and Stevie used to deal with it together, but ever since Slash decided that laundry detergent and dish detergent were interchangeable, he had been banned from the laundry room.

“What?!” Vince screeched, “Stevie, how could you?” he cried, his voice full of betrayal.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Stevie threw her arms in the air, “I was tired, we all dress the same, and you and Axl are the same size!”

“You take that back! I am a quarter inch taller than him and you know it!”

“Oh, ex _cuse_ me,” Stevie rolled her eyes, “how could I forget? How’s the weather up there, skyscraper?”

Gasping in exaggerated offense, Vince turned to his bandmates desperately, “Do you hear this blasphemy? She’s trying to sabotage us! She wants to break my spirit and give my superior wardrobe to her singer!”

“Yes, Vinnie, she is clearly an evil mastermind,” Nikki chuckled as he looked at Stevie’s pouting face.

“Aw, come on man, look at her!” Tommy reached over, putting his hands on either side of Stevie’s face to squish her cheeks, “How can you stay mad at her? Look at this face!” Stevie giggled as the other drummer pulled her closer, both of them giving Vince puppy eyes as Tommy sang, “You know you loooove herrrrr.”

To Vince’s credit, he put in a good effort fighting off the smile on his face. But eventually he couldn't resist breaking into a wide grin at the drummers’ antics, “Goddammit, you guys, I have a reputation!”

“You do?” Nikki laughed as Vince punched his arm, the group descending into playful bickering and laughter.

"I think I saw something about his reputation on the bathroom wall at the Roxy," Duff teased, making everyone laugh.

"Guys I gotta pee," Stevie laughed. She got out of Tommy's hold and headed to the bathroom, Duff taking a peek.

"See something you like?" Nikki teased, elbowing Duff.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he huffed, shoving Nikki’s shoulder, “Didn’t you come over here for a reason? Come help me with my shit before it fucking dissolves or something.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” grinning, Nikki rubbed his hands together as they glowed lightly, the two bassists making their way back to Duff’s new room to try to salvage more of his stuff.

Tommy shook his head lightly and turned to Slash, “Dude, Duff and Stevie in the same apartment? Have fun with that.”

“God, don’t remind me,” Slash groaned, “You should have seen Izzy’s face when we were talking about it.”

“I can’t believe Stevie still hasn’t noticed.”

“Hasn’t noticed what?” Stevie chirped, narrowing her eyes suspiciously as she rounded the corner, making her way back to her seat.

Without missing a beat, Slash smirked, “That Tommy’s been trying to flick olives down your shirt for the last ten minutes.”

“Dude!” Stevie cried indignantly, smacking Tommy’s arm, “Not cool! This shirt isn’t even low cut, you’re just gonna just fucking marinara on it or something!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Tommy grit out, glaring at Slash as he, Vince, and Mick laughed at his misfortune.

The night went pretty smoothly, other than Vince calling Stevie ‘Benedict Arnold’ various times throughout the night, and Nikki almost catching a couple of Duff’s books on fire. But soon, the Crue headed out, leaving the three roommates in their home.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat,” Stevie yawned. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She said goodnight before heading to her room, Duff watching her as she went. Slash slapped his shoulder.

“I’m not living with you pining over her,” Slash groaned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Duff stood up and headed to his room. “Stevie doesn’t even like me like that.” With that, he headed towards his room, leaving the guitarist there to groan.

“It is a sad, sad day,” Slash muttered to himself, “when _Axl_ is the one in a stable relationship.”

With one last shake of his head, he made his way into his own room, bracing himself for what was sure to be an interesting new living situation.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a couple weeks since Duff moved in with Slash and Stevie and in that time, he had sat on Slash probably a dozen times.

Stevie had mentioned before how most of the time Slash would camouflage in his sleep, but it was still hard to get used to. He would come home after a double shift and go to collapse on the couch only to land on a very disgruntled guitar player. 

“Goddammit, can’t you fucking _check_ before throwing yourself on the couch?”

“Can’t _you_ go to sleep in your fucking room?!” Duff snapped back.

Slash wanted to rip his hair out. He had to grind his teeth together to keep from screaming about the number of times he’s had to deal with a drunken Stevie stumbling into his room to bawl about how she had too much love and too many crushes and they didn’t like her back and she was going to die alone. And because he was a fucking good friend, he would pet her head and try to soothe her until she finally fell asleep and he was stuck with a snoring glowstick lighting up his room.

So yes, he had been sleeping on the couch. But because, and he could not stress this enough, he was a _good fucking friend_ , he couldn’t explain to Duff exactly why.

Living together was turning out to be a hell or an adjustment for the three rockers. Duff had shaken up their routine, giving them an extra person to get drunk with, which made Stevie’s already frazzled emotions even more haywire, not to mention the household hangovers they were suffering through each morning. It was easy with Tracii. He stayed out all night and slept all day, and honestly, Slash and Stevie had kinda felt sorry for him. But Duff was something different, and after one too many mornings of being awoken by Duff and Slash arguing, Stevie exploded.

“Enough!” She yelled at them. “I am going to stay the night someplace else so I can get some fucking sleep before work!” 

That was three days ago, and this was the first night Duff and Slash had seen their roommate since she stormed out. Walking into the apartment, Stevie was pleased to see that the two boys looked properly chastised. Granted, their arguing hadn’t improved much during her three day exile, but Slash and Duff figured she didn’t need to know that.

"Hi boys," she smiled. "It’s a beautiful day. Aside from the freak thunderstorm yesterday," She flopped on the couch. 

"Thought you moved out," Slash grumbled.

"Nonsense. I just stayed the night at Kelly's."

“Oh thank GOD,” the guitarist practically threw himself across Stevie’s lap, “I thought you were leaving forever!”

Duff shuffled over sitting next to her and looking very much like a kicked puppy, “You were gone for so long we didn’t think you were coming back and we missed you so much-”

“Holy shit you guys,” Stevie shook her head fondly, patting Slash’s head, “I was gone for three days! I just needed a long weekend away from your bickering-”

“He started it!” Two voices snapped simultaneously.

Eyebrow twitching in thinly veiled annoyance, Stevie grit her teeth and continued, “Whatever, my point is I need your arguments to at least be rescheduled to later in the day, alright?”

There was some minor grumbling.

"If you don't, Kelly's looking for a roommate. Or a fuck buddy that gets a free room." She smirked. She knew that would get them to chill out. "Now, I'm hungry. And I'm going to see a show tonight. You guys gonna join me?"

“Of course, but I gotta go to work,” Duff told her. “I’ll see you guys this evening.” He headed to his room to pull on his uniform, something nagging him in the back of his mind. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he tried to focus on making it through another shift at a job he hated.

The three roommates went to their various shitty jobs, each feeling impatient for the day when their music would finally pay the bills and they would have to deal with huffy customers telling them to cut their hair. Needless to say, by the time they reached the Whiskey for the show they were ready to let loose and have some fun. Tonight Motley Crue had managed to snag a headlining slot, Duff, Slash, and Stevie toasting their friends’ success and lamenting their own band’s slow growth in equal measure. 

“We’re gonna make it, guys!” Stevie exclaimed, people around her moving away or shielding their eyes as she glowed with enthusiasm. She waved her empty glass excitedly, slurring slightly, “I mean, I mean the crowds have been getting wild for us! And the stuff we’ve recorded is fucking badass! It’s only a matter of time before we start bringing in the big bucks!”

“God, I hope so,” Slash sighed, “this starving artist shit is getting old.”

"Guess you could catch and eat a snake," someone said. Stevie turned and smiled.

"Kelly!" She gave him a hug. 

"Hey glowstick," Kelly laughed. "You look rested."

"I am. Thank you." She kissed his cheek.

Duff smiled tensely as he gave Kelly a high five, “Hey man.”

Slash rolled his eyes as Kelly shot him a knowing look, grinning, “Sup guys. Word on the street is you’re having some domestic troubles,” he elbowed Stevie playfully, “This gal was lighting up the place when she first came over.”

“Yeah,” Duff grimaced as he admitted, “It’s taking some getting used to.”

“I can imagine,” Kelly raised an eyebrow. The first night Stevie had arrived on his doorstep he’d had to wear sunglasses as she ranted and raved and lamented about the whole situation, “I mean, you’ve all got annoying ass powers-” he ignored the three offended outcries, “-and you live in a shoebox. Of course you’re stepping on each others’ toes.”

"At least we don't have axl…" slash pointed out.

"Don't have me for what?" Axl said as he approached the group, Baz's arm around his shoulder.

"In our shoebox home," Stevie told him. 

“Excuse you, I am a goddamn delight and any house would be lucky to have me!” the singer huffed.

“You tell ‘em, babe,” Baz grinned.

"When you yell, you'd blow down a wall…" Slash commented. 

“Fuck you, my control is impeccable!” Axl growled and Kelly raised his hands before a fight could break out.

"Let's get some drinks," he told them. "I'm buying."

"My hero," Stevie laughed. Kelly had an arm around her waist. Izzy was sitting at a booth, which Kelly spotted and brought everyone over to him.

Raising his head, Izzy nodded in greeting, “Hey guys, here to see the Crue?” he gestured at the stage where Nikki was, as usual, on fire.

Laughing, Stevie slid into the booth next to him, “Yup! What are you doing over here all by your lonesome?”

“Brooding,” Axl, Baz, and Slash all answered simultaneously.

Glaring, Izzy huffed, “I was enjoying some peace for once in my life, fuck you very much.”

"Maybe later," Stevie giggles, making Izzy's cheeks burn bright red.

"Their act is lame," Axl rolled his eyes. "Fire again? Really?"

“I mean, you gotta respect their commitment to the brand,” Slash shrugged.

The group downed their drinks, bickering and joking and occasionally remembering to cheer for the Crue. Before they knew it, the set was finishing up, Stevie shining extra bright as they applauded the band as they left the stage.

Izzy glanced between Stevie and Duff with forced nonchalance, “So, how’s the living situation going?”

Shrugging, Stevie answered, “Getting better I guess. Duff’s still not used to Slash camouflaging with the couch,” she snickered.

Duff threw his arms in the air in exasperation, “Gee, I’m sorry I’m used to living in places where you don’t have to pat down every surface in case there’s a hidden guitarist there!”

“Apology accepted,” Slash grinned, the bassist shoving him as he laughed.

“Ugh, I just can’t wait until we can have some more space,” Stevie groaned, “I love you guys, but fuck man, some elbow room would be nice.”

Izzy, Axl, and Baz, nodded their heads sympathetically, their own living situations only marginally better than the trio’s. Meanwhile, Kelly hummed in consideration.

“You could always stay at my place for awhile if you want,” he shrugged.

Stevie giggled, slapping a hand over her mouth when she saw the group squint from her light, “Kelly,” she patted his shoulder, “that’s sweet of you dude, but you live in a shitty studio apartment in the slums. Just having me over was a stretch.”

“No, no,” Kelly shook his head, “I meant my _other_ place.”

Silence stretched as six pairs of eyes stared at Kelly in confusion. 

“....What?” Slash finally broke the silence.

“You know, my other place,” Kelly said casually, “the one on Mulholland?” When the stares continued, he furrowed his brows, “Have I never mentioned it before?”

“No,” Duff answered emphatically, “No you have not. What the Fuck?”

“Huh.” It was maybe a little annoying sometimes, but it wasn’t Kelly’s fault he couldn’t remember who he’d told what to. After all, the bassist was more or less immortal, his mutant healing factor fucking with his aging until he found himself stuck as a twenty-something for God only knew how long. So if his memory was a little sketchy, well, who could blame him?

The drugs and alcohol probably didn’t help either. But that was besides the point.

“Well, yeah. I have another place. It’s a house, got like, eleven bedrooms if I’m remembering correctly? It’s also got-”

“Woah, woah, woah, dude,” Baz waved his hands, “Hold up. Did you just say _eleven_ bedrooms?”

“Give or take,” he shrugged.

“So…. it’s a mansion,” Axl stated, voice unnervingly blank, “You have a mansion.”

“I guess, yeah…”

As Axl sucked in a long, deep breath, Kelly realized that he had made a huge mistake.

“ _ **WHAT?!**_ ” It was honestly impressive how Axl managed to shriek at ear splitting levels without any of his mutant ability coming through. Still, even his human-level screeching had the group flinching.

The singer slammed his hands on the table, glasses shaking as he glared at Kelly in shock and fury, “You’re telling me that we’ve all be living on top of each other in fucking sqalor and this whole time you’ve had a goddamn _mansion?_ ”

“Who has a mansion?”

Kelly would give anything for Sebastian’s ability to teleport right now. Because when he turned around, he found the members of Motley Crue staring at him hungrily, and he suddenly felt like he was surrounded by hyenas. 

He probably should have waited until it was just him and Stevie before mentioning the house.

"Uh, hi guys," Kelly laughed. "What brings you here?"

"You have a mansion and didn't tell us?" Tommy pouted. "I thought you loved us."

"Dude the 60s fucked my brain. I can't remember shit," Kelly laughed.

"Which 60s?" Vince smirked.

"Yes." Kelly nodded, dodging the question. "So, I'm just gonna go…"

He was half standing when Duff’s unfairly long arm shot out from across the table, palm landing solidly against the back of the booth to box Kelly in.

“Oh I think the fuck not,” he stated firmly, a quick rumble of thunder sounding through the dirty window behind him. The dramatic motherfucker.

“Yeah, you’re not getting away that easily,” Tommy laughed as he and his bandmates dragged some chairs over to sit around the booth, adding another layer of defense to keep Kelly trapped, “Come on man, I wanna know more! Like, dude, if you’ve got a legit place, why aren’t you living there?”

Sighing in resignation, Kelly settled back in his seat and shrugged, “I dunno, I just like being closer to the action I guess,” he smirked, “It gets annoying having to drive twenty minutes just to get some pussy.”

“What, none of your fancy ass neighbors cut it?” Vince teased.

“I mean, there was one dude I used to hook up with, but that was in the… 30s I think? I dunno, all I know is he, like most of my neighbors, aren’t exactly at an age that can… keep up with me,” he winked mischievously as the group snickered. 

Slash shook his head, “Dude, I get that, but personally I give fuck all about the age demographic, you’ve actually got a decent fucking roof, man!”

“I mean there’s the commute into the Strip, too, y’know?” Kelly argued.

“Oh no, how will I survive the commute?” Baz whined sarcastically, sticking his tongue out when Kelly flipped the teleporter off. 

"It needs a lot of work," Kelly added. "Like weeds and shit and…"

"Dude, we have a gardener," Nikki motioned to Vince.

"And spiders?" Kelly pointed out.

"I'll feed them to my snake...that I most definitely do not have…" Slash's eyes darted to Stevie quickly before glancing away again.

"Can we at least see it?" Stevie asked. "You know how much I love decorating."

"Please no kiss posters in the living room," Mick groaned.

“Why do you hate art?” Stevie pouted jokingly.

Meanwhile, Kelly sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I’m not getting out of this one am I?”

A chorus of “no”s answered him.

Rolling his eyes, Kelly threw his hands up in defeat, “Fine, I guess I can show you around sometime this week. What’s the worst that could happen?”

At that moment, loud, ominous cracks of thunder and lightning rattled the windows behind them. The group snapped to look at Duff in exasperation. The blonde bassist merely shrugged.

“What? Am I wrong?”


	3. Chapter 3

It was a Wednesday. The longest fucking day of the week. Everyone had a rare day where they were all off, or worked in the morning and was off that afternoon. Kelly gave them the address and they all piled in cars to head over there to check it out. They pulled up to the large metal gate, where Kelly was standing outside, smoking a cigarette while a couple of older residents eyed him like he was a god.

“It’s gated?” Izzy asked as they approached the gate. Kelly tossed down his cigarette.

“You see the way Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are eyeing me over there,” He nodded at the couple that looked like they were heading to the country club. “Okay, I’m warning you, it needs a lot of work. It hasn’t been regularly lived in since the war.”

“Which war?” Baz asked. Kelly just smirked, opening the gate to lead the group down a long driveway, a large overgrown house spotted in the distance.

At first, they passed several dying trees and bushes, weeds and grass sprouting between cracks in the concrete, but before long Vince was rushing out in front of them, laughing like a madman, As he sprinted up the driveway, the plants came to life behind him.

Yellowing plants suddenly turned a bright, healthy green, flowers blooming from some of them, and the patches of brown grass revived itself. Ahead of them, Vince shouted out victoriously, “I fucking knew it!”

Once they caught up, the rockers found the blonde singer standing proudly in front of a rapidly growing marijuana plant. He turned to grin at Kelly, “I knew I would find some on your property!”

“Ooooo Kelly smokes pot. Whoever would’ve guessed that one?” Axl rolled his eyes. Mick gave Vince a look to stop him from growing vines and tying Axl up, not that anyone else would complain. Stevie was oddly quiet, staring at the house.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Kelly asked. Stevie immediately hugged him with tears in her eyes.

“It’s perfect!” She told him. “We could paint, and new floors, and…”

“We kinda need money to do that kid,” Mick laughed. “Anyone got money?” Stevie sighed.

“Can we look inside now?” She turned to look at the house.

“Sure thing, sunshine,” Kelly smiled. He turned to Vince, “And if you could maybe make some of the plants around here do… the opposite of that,” he gestured to the still subtly growing weed, “it would certainly make the tour easier.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Vince grumbled. But he kept his word, and as they walked into the mansion, the weeds, grass, and vines covering the house began to recede. 

“It’s huge!” Duff gasped. “Holy shit dude.”

“You’ve been holding out on us,” Nikki teased. Kelly shook his head.

“I told you, I just forgot,” Kelly shrugged. “I can’t even remember if there was a…”

“POOL!” Stevie yelled, running to the large windows in the living room. “There’s a fucking pool!”

“Are you sure that’s a pool?” Tommy asked. “Looks like moss city.”

“Looks like an awesome skate park,” Izzy smirked, eyes glinting excitedly.

“Alright, stop fantasizing about the pool you two,” Slash draped his arms around Stevie and Izzy, guiding them away from the window, “we’ve got the whole rest of the house to see.”

Despite Kelly’s insistence, the house wasn’t in as bad of shape as they were expecting, especially once Vince took care of the weeds springing up through the floorboards. It certainly wasn’t pristine, and Tommy swore up and down that he saw a raccoon scurry by, but it wasn’t any worse than any of the garbage apartments they were currently spending all their money to live in. At least the mansion would be free and have extra space.

They were still on the first floor, looking into the various rooms, Kelly absently making comments.

“This room was sold to me as a library,” he said about the room covered in empty bookshelves, “but like, I don’t exactly own a library’s worth of books.” He opened the door to another room, it was large and spacious, with soundproofing panels haphazardly attached to the walls, “This is technically a bedroom, and for like, a weekend I thought I might turn it into a personal studio, but then I kind of forgot about it-”

“DIBS!”

Kelly was cut off as Axl shoved his way past him, dragging a gleeful Sebastian behind him as they darted into the room, “Fuck yes, we can be as fucking noisy as we want and no one will bust our ass about it!” The redhead spun around excitedly.

“Babe!! There’s even a bathroom attached and everything!” Baz announced.

They both cheered as Kelly looked on in dismay, “You can’t- you can’t call dibs, this is just a fucking tour!”

“There’s a sunroom?!” Stevie’s voice rang out from down the hallway. 

Following the delighted giggling, the group found Stevie jumping up and down in a room that consisted of three walls of floor to ceiling windows. The room seemed dim at first, much of the glass covered in ivy, but after some pestering Vince drew the plants away, allowing the room to be filled with bright, warm sunlight.

“This one is mine!” Stevie declared, “I will fight anyone who tries to take this from me, it is MINE!” she announced aggressively, the boys throwing their hands up in surrender, none of them planning on taking her sunshine away, especially since they knew how much she depended on it due to her mutation.

"Uh, you guys, it's just a tour," Kelly pointed out, "You can't live here?"

"And why not?" Stevie crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, the commute and…" he was cut off by Tommy running over and grabbing him.

"Don't take this from us!" He growled, "You might be able to live forever, but Nikki can torture you!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Izzy put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, "If he doesn't want us to live here, then we don't have to share our booze or Vince's good shit with him anymore."

"Wait, what?" Kelly pouted. "That's not fair…" Finally, he sighed and threw his arms in the air in defeat, "Fine."

There was a chorus of cheers before the group quickly scattered, everyone rushing and shoving each other to explore the rest of the house and claim a room for themselves. Shaking his head in fond exasperation, Kelly pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lit one up, meandering back down the hall. A soft _thwip, thwip,_ noise came from Axl and Sebastian’s room, and when he poked his head in he found the teleporter already popping in and out with armfuls of stuff and even a few pieces of furniture into the room. Further down the hallway, Duff had pulled out a pocket knife and was carving his name into the library door. Footsteps and chattering voices sounded above his head as the group explored the upper levels of the house.

Tommy and Nikki decided to check out the attic and make that a suite for them, despite Kelly's protests. Upon opening the door, they found old furniture, trunks, and a bathroom. A large balcony overlooked the backyard. But Tommy didn't care about that. Instead, he went for one of the trunks.

"What are you doing?" Nikki asked.

"Being nosy," Tommy told him. "Wanna help?"

"Fuck yeah," Nikki opened another trunk.

"Hey! Quit snooping!" Kelly yelled.

"It’s _our_ room. And it's in here, so…" Nikki smirked. Kelly groaned as Nikki found pictures and such of Kelly over the years, making fun of his fashion sense. Tommy was digging around in old clothes when he suddenly froze, inhaled, and yelled.

“STEVIE!” He yelled out. Stevie made her way into the attic.

“Is there a spider?” She asked, looking at Kelly, who was confused. Tommy walked over to her with his hands behind his back.

“So, you know how I could only afford a bottle of Smirnoff for your birthday?” Tommy asked. Stevie nodded. “Happy real birthday.” He handed her a large envelope. Looking inside, there was a ton of money. She looked up at him, eyes wide.

“What?” She asked.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Kelly said. “That’s where I put it!”

“It’s in mine and T’s room, and I say that Stevie gets to start fixing up and decorating the house with it,” Nikki smirked at the other bassist.

“Dude!” Sebastian’s voice called from a floor below, “Slash found a nest with like, a dozen snakes in it!”

“DON’T LET HIM KEEP THEM!” Stevie screamed, running from the room to try to put a stop to Slash’s reptile hoarding. Tommy grinned widely, throwing his arms around Nikki and Kelly.

“I fucking love this house.” 

Kelly groaned, “I was afraid you were going to say that,” He rubbed his head. “I’m going to go see if anyone took my bedroom and kick them out. Then maybe we can see if Stevie will get her hands off some money and we can get takeout from the Rainbow?”

“Awesome!” Tommy smiled. “Nikki, can I start getting our stuff?”

“Knock yourself out T,” Nikki laughed and, just like that, Tommy took off.

Between the speedster and the teleporter, the house was piled with stuff in no time. Vince coaxed the foliage around the house into something manageable (although the marijuana plant only seemed to be growing more, not that any of them were complaining). Footsteps thundered through the whole house, rockers exploring and laying claim to rooms and artifacts, rifling through Kelly’s boxes (which he complained about loudly and was thoroughly ignored), and Stevie rambling about her plans for various decorations and repairs.

When the food arrived, the chaos died down just a bit, everyone pausing in their energetic tasks to stuff their faces and exchange plans with the others.

It was easy for Kelly to slip away. Stepping outside, he saw that night had fallen, making the already unrecognizable yard even more unfamiliar. Lighting up a cigarette, he tried to remember the last time this house was this lively. He tried to remember when _any_ of his homes were this lively. But he was coming up blank.

“Are you really okay with us being here?”

The bassist nearly jumped out of his skin, whirling around to find himself face to face with a curious looking Izzy. It was easy for him to sneak up on people, gliding through walls silently rather than giving away his presence by opening a door.

Walking over to stand beside him, Izzy took out his own cigarettes, letting his question hang in the air for a few minutes as they smoked quietly.

“...Yeah,” Kelly finally answered, a wry smile on his face, “You guys are fine,” he grinned at the guitarist teasingly, “I’ve just been trying to avoid becoming friends with you fuckers, and this seriously throws a wrench in my plans.” He said it sarcastically, but there was a bit of truth in his words. Making friends wasn’t always fun for the immortal.

“You’ve been friends with us for a while, you unfortunate motherfucker,” Izzy smirked.

Kelly wanted to deny his words, but before he got a chance, Stevie suddenly burst out onto the porch, “IZZY!” she was glowing with excitement, “We found a locked door! Maybe there’s treasure inside!!”

“Goddamn it, stop stealing all my shit!” Kelly pouted.

"We're not stealing, we're admiring," Stevie told him.

"Hey Baz, I think this will look great in our room!" Axl called out to his boyfriend as he walked by. Stevie just gave Kelly a sheepish smile.

"If I could die, you guys would be the death of me," Kelly shook his head. "Let's see if we can find the key before Nikki decides to melt it." Stevie cheered and kissed Kelly's cheek before heading to the door.

"You sure you're okay?" Izzy asked Kelly before they headed back in.

"Yeah," Kelly sighed. "I just wish I could remember what else I hid here…" he trailed off. Izzy felt bad for the guy. No one knew how old Kelly really was or everything he had seen, and they could tell that it weighted on him from time to time.

Wandering back inside, Stevie led them to the door in question. It was off the side of the kitchen, and looked slightly nicer than the other doors in the house. Kelly squinted at it and hummed.

“Hmm… where does this go?” he mumbled to himself.

“That’s what we have to find out!” Stevie answered, “Okay, think real hard Kelly- where would you hide a key to your secret treasure?”

Kelly gave her a deadpan expression, “I don’t remember what I had for breakfast, this might be a bit of a challenge.”

“Hey, there’s stairs in here!”

Spinning around, Kelly and Stevie found half of Izzy’s body leaning through the door to look behind it, “It’s dark as fuck in here, but I think it maybe leads to cellar?”

"Why don't we have anyone in our group with super strength?" Stevie sighed. Nikki made his way over and put his hand on the lock, heating it until the working components melted and it fell apart.

"Babe, what if that lock was the only thing keeping a vampire from our necks?" Tommy asked.

"You're too skinny and anemic. He won't want your blood." Nikki smiled.

"Why can't it be a hot vampire girl?" Stevie crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, why don't you lead us down there so we can find out, Flashlight?" Nikki motioned to the door. By this point the others had joined them.

"Fine." Stevie huffed, heading down the stairs. "But have Mick on standby in case I fall and break my arm."

Taking a moment to focus, she let herself glow brighter than usual, illuminating a foot or two in front of her as she and the rest of the group began their descent. The stairway didn’t go too deep though, and before they knew it, they were turning into an open room. It wasn’t huge, but it had a few tables and chairs shoved up against the wall, and what looked like a bar in the back corner. What really caught their attention was the numerous shelves lined with bottles and jars, and a few large barrels sitting beneath them.

“Oh shiiiit,” Kelly’s eyes widened in comprehension, “It’s the Prohibition Room!”

“The what now?” Tommy asked.

Meanwhile, Duff was already darting forward, snatching one of the jars down and struggling to unscrew the lid.

“Yeah,” Kelly answered absently, “I totally forgot about this, but I had like, an unofficial speakeasy down here during prohibition,” he explained. 

Finally getting the jar open, Duff unceremoniously took a large swig from it. His face scrunched up a bit as he swallowed before breaking into a wide grin, “Fuck yeah, moonshine!!”

“Jesus Christ, Duff, what if that had been poison or something?” Axl looked on in horror, “Does moonshine expire? What if it turned into bleach or something!”

“I don’t think that’s how alcohol works, dude,” Slash chimed in.

“It’s alcohol made by _Kelly_ ,” Axl pointed accusingly, “standard assumptions don’t apply here!”

“This is the best day of my life,” Duff giggled, ignoring the argument and already halfway through the jar.

“Okay, alright, slow down there Weather Witch,” Kelly snagged the jar out of his hand, ignoring his whining, “At least pace yourself, this shit is strong.” Stevie walked around, checking out the dusty room.

“Holy shit guys!” Slash called out. “Look at this chick!”

Hanging on the wall was an art deco style poster of a woman in a green dress, holding a bottle of alcohol. She had long blond hair, and it almost looked like green wings. There were words about Absinthe and little green fairies around her.

“She looks like Stevie!” Vince laughed. “Holy shit!”

“She looks nothing like me,” Stevie rolled her eyes. “You guys are blind.”

“Eh, she kinda does,” Kelly agreed. “I wonder if there’s any absinthe still around here.” He started rifling through various bottles that were on the bar. Upon picking one up, a whole section of the bar pulled away, showing an access to the entire underside of the bar. Under the bar were cases of alcohol, money, and some old guns.

For a moment, all they could do was stare down at the revealed stash. Eventually, Sebastian broke the silence with a whispered but emphatic, “ _Holy shit, dude_.”

“...So _that’s_ where I put those.”

“Sweet, more alcohol!” Duff chimed in.

“Sweet, more money!” Nikki added.

“ _Guns_ ,” Izzy stated with far too much glee.

“And all I get is a poster of a girl advertising hallucinogenic alcohol,” Stevie sighed. Kelly shook his head.

“You know, I think there are more hidden things all over the estate,” Kelly pointed out, “Maybe you’ll find a diamond or something.”

“Yeah, because the house is the only one that will give her a diamond,” Axl teased, making Stevie glare at him.

“Okay, okay, let’s get this all out of here and take it upstairs,” Kelly told them, “I’m having some flashbacks and I’d rather count it on the main floor,” He looked at Stevie, “And tomorrow, we’ll go buy new furniture.” 

Stevie smiled, “Really?” She asked.

“Yeah,” He shrugged. Stevie’s excitement lit up the room, literally.

“My eyes!” Vince covered his eyes. “Mick, I need you to heal them!”

“You were either going to go blind from Stevie or from touching yourself and I’m not healing either,” Mick grumbled.

Bringing up the money, weapons, and enough alcohol to satisfy them for the night, they returned upstairs and sprawled out in the living room. They found the guns to all be unloaded, much to Izzy’s disappointment and everyone else’s relief. The money they had found, combined with the envelope Tommy had given Stevie, added up to a more than impressive amount.

“Holy shit,” Stevie stared in wide-eyed glee after they finished adding up the total, “With this much cash, we can fix this place up _and_ eat more than once a day!”

“Oh thank God,” Tommy sighed in relief.

“Yeah, we’ll have you vampire-worthy in no time,” Nikki teased.

“Dude, don’t even joke about that!” Tommy whined, “I’m not gonna be able to sleep tonight!”

“I can work with that,” Nikki winked.

“Oh God, I’m glad you guys are sequestered in the attic,” Vince shuddered, “Sleeping with earplugs was getting old.”

“Oh, challenge accepted,” Nikki grinned mischievously, tugging Tommy to stand and head towards their room, the drummer laughing.

“Night, roomies!”

“Ugh, I regret this already,” Kelly moaned exaggeratedly.

“I think I’m gonna head to bed too,” Izzy stood nonchalantly, “I'm pretty beat.”

“Good idea,” Stevie piped up, “We’ve had a busy day and tomorrow we’ve got even more to do!” She rubbed her hands together in excitement.

As they began to clear out, Duff suddenly stumbled, a loud yelp sounding from around his feet.

“Are you _fucking_ kidding me!” The bassist shrieked as Slash became visible from his place laying on the floor, glaring furiously.

“We’re in a goddamn mansion, how do you _still_ manage to step on me?!”

“You’re laying in the middle of the fucking floor, how is this _my_ fault??”

Shaking her head, Stevie quickly retreated to her new room, the bickering getting softer as she skipped down the hallway. A mattress was haphazardly shoved in the corner of the sunroom, and piles of clothes and posters were spread about the floor. As she shut the door behind her, she was relieved to find that she couldn’t hear her two bandmates’ arguing anymore. Falling onto her bed, she sighed in contentment. They could fight all they wanted now and she wouldn't be disturbed. It was a dream come true.

This place was perfect.


	4. Chapter 4

Stevie had gotten so used to yelling waking her up, that when she woke up and the room was silent, she was a little confused. But a smile soon spread on her face as she stretched and rolled over on her mattress. She had so many plans for the room. Paint, rug, furniture, an actual bed, and more. And they were going to get a bunch of that today, plus groceries. A wholesale store had just opened up a month ago, and they actually had the money to buy a membership. They had a busy day today.

And it was cloudy outside.

But as she stood to get dressed, she didn’t think much of it. Stevie never stopped absorbing sunlight- she simply couldn’t shut her mutation off- and especially being in southern California, she usually had an excess of light in her. It was the reason she was always glowing at least a little. If it was overcast for more than a few days it was certainly not a fun time, but ever since she met Duff she was able to simply ask him for some clear skies if it had been too long and she’d be good to go.

Yesterday had been sunny though, so she figured she could let nature do its thing for now. No biggie. Throwing on some jeans and her least dirty shirt, she wandered out into the hallway of her new home. Axl and Sebastian’s door was shut, but Duff’s was open and empty. Continuing into the living room, she heard a frantic voice.

“Dude, I’m telling you, it was right there!”

Turning the corner, she found Tommy waving his arms dramatically in front of an unconvinced looking Duff.

“Well, if you’re so sure, why didn’t you chase after it?”

“I tried! But it was just gone! It probably burrowed under the floorboards or something!”

“What did?” Stevie piped up, getting their attention.

Duff rolled his eyes, “Tommy is still going on about that “raccoon” from yesterday,” he explained, disbelief heavy in his voice.

“It’s true though!” Tommy defended himself, “I saw it again this morning!”

“Are you sure you’re not just, like, super hungover?” Stevie tried to reason. So far, Tommy was the only one to have seen the supposed critter, so she tried to find another explanation, “I mean, I’ve had some mornings where I think the fucking walls are moving, y’know?”

“No! It’s real, I swear!”

Stevie and Duff exchanged looks, even as Tommy continued to ramble. They nodded along politely, wandering into the kitchen when the Motley Crue drummer finally gave up. Throwing open a cabinet, Stevie snatched a bag of chips for her breakfast. Along with their take out, they had grabbed some snacks the night before. The mansion didn’t have a fridge, only an old school ice box that was sorely lacking in ice. Oh well. They’d have that taken care of by the end of the day, Stevie thought happily.

“So, Kelly and I are going shopping today,” She told them as she shoved chips into her mouth. “I thought we could split and have half of you guys clean while half went shopping?”

“You know I hate shopping,” Duff groaned. “I guess I’ll stay here and clean.”

“T, I think you better come with me,” Stevie told the other drummer.

“What? Why?” Tommy asked.

“Well, if you made a flamethrower to melt roaches, imagine what you’ll do when you see your supposed raccoon.”

“Is he still going on about that?” Mick asked, shuffling down the stairs, “Why the fuck isn’t there a coffee maker? I need my caffeine.”

“We’ll get one,” Stevie told him, “Don’t worry. It’s on the list.”

“The delivery guys aren’t gonna be happy having to bring all the things you want to buy to the house,” Nikki pointed out as he appeared as well, leaning against the counter, “We give Kelly shit about the “commute”, but we actually are a decent ways away from the strip.”

“Why are we still complaining about the commute?” Baz inquired, wandering into the kitchen with a still mostly-asleep Axl draped across his back.

“Oh, you know,” Stevie sighed dramatically, “We were just talking about how much trouble getting all the new furniture and stuff here will be. If only there was a big, strong mutant who could get things home for us,” she batted her eyelashes at the tall singer.

“Aw, dude you know I’m your guy!” Baz laughed heartily, earning him a mumbled scolding from the redhead on his back that he was quick to ignore, “It’ll probably take me a few trips, I still have trouble jumping large shit so I might have to take things one at a time, but otherwise it’s no problem!” 

“Baz, I love you,” Stevie kissed his cheek.

“Back off, he’s mine,” Axl grumbled from where his face was still pressed into his back. Stevie smiled and shook her head.

“He dyes his hair black and we might have to fight for him,” Stevie told Axl. At that moment, Izzy made his way in and Stevie’s smile got bigger. “Iz!”

“God, how are you so cheerful so early in the morning?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.

“I’m just excited!” She told him, “And you’re going shopping with me and Kelly!”

“What?” Izzy asked. “Who decided that?”

“I did,” Stevie said proudly, “We have a lot to do to get this house in livable shape!” There was a chorus of groans. “I don’t want to hear it. Or I’ll kick everyone except Kelly out.”

The grumbling continued, but none of them put up any real fight. They quickly got the groups sorted out. Stevie, Kelly, Izzy, Tommy, Nikki, and Sebastian would be hitting the stores for the various supplies and furniture the house needed to be livable. Meanwhile, Vince, Mick, Slash, Duff, and Axl would be staying to clean the place and make it less of a health hazard.

Baz dropped Axl unceremoniously onto the beat up couch in the living room. “He’ll wake up once he realizes everyone is doing their cleaning “wrong”,” he assured them.

“Excuse me for having fucking standards,” the redhead mumbled into the dusty cushions, receiving one last kiss on his cheek before the groups split up. The shopping team got ready, Kelly deciding that they should deposit the money instead of paying with cash, so they headed out to the bank.

“Okay, so let’s start with the floor?” Duff suggested. Axl, who’s head had been resting on the couch, popped up suddenly.

“I think the fuck not!”

****

They split the money and each put it in their separate accounts. After fixing overdraft and bank fees, they were all good to go. Stevie was smiling still as she settled in Kelly’s car. She stared out the window as he drove towards the various furniture and home decor stores. Stevie had plans, and one of those plans included a new bed without a spring poking her back.

“You okay over there Glowstick?” Kelly asked. “You’re kinda quiet.”

“I’m good,” She smiled at him, “Just must need some more sleep, y'know?”

Shrugging, Kelly accepted her answer. He hadn’t slept great either, being in a house as old as his meant a lot of weird noises, not to mention they all still had shitty mattresses, so he was sure the blonde drummer would be fine soon enough. 

Pulling up to Sears, Stevie clapped her hands excitedly while the poor boys shoved in the back seat of Kelly’s car practically fell out.

“Fuck, Sebastian why do you have so much leg??” Nikki complained, stretching as he stood on the sidewalk, “I thought Tommy was long…”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Izzy practically screeched, having ghosted out of the car the second the wheels had stopped, “All three of you are over _six feet_ of dumbass! I almost slipped out on the freeway just to end my misery!”

“Aw, poor little guy,” Kelly tried to ruffle Izzy’s hair, though he wasn’t surprised when his hand fell right through.

Izzy glared, “You’re like, an inch taller than me!”

“Okay guys, stop posturing,” Stevie rolled her eyes, “This is supposed to be the fun part! We can get some kickass stuff to make the house the most rockin place in Hollywood!”

They all headed inside. Stevie immediately headed towards the furniture, but Nikki spotted the power tools and looked at Tommy.

“We’ll need a drill and stuff right?” He asked. “And, like, a screwdriver?”

“Shiny torture devices,” Tommy laughed. “Let’s go look.”

“You know if you don’t go with Stevie, she’ll pick your furniture out for you, right?” Izzy told them. They just shrugged. Kelly and Baz were distracted by the video game display, so Izzy sighed, and then realized something. He would be alone with Stevie until they got bored with their toys.

This was his chance.

Following after Stevie, he found the drummer giggling as she hopped onto different mattresses, grinning at the feel of a bed that wasn’t dragged out of a dumpster.

“Having fun?” Izzy smirked.

“Oh, lots,” Stevie replied. Looking over at him, her brows furrowed, suddenly glancing around, “Hey, where’d the other guys go?”

Izzy shrugged, “Baz and Kelly were looking at some game or something, and the terror twins were playing with power tools.”

Stevie huffed, “I swear, I’m going to get those boys bunk beds.”

“Knowing them they’d be thrilled.”

“Come try this mattress out with me!” Stevie told Izzy. He sat on the edge and she pulled him back to lay on it.

“Oh, this is nice,” Izzy mumbled. “I could get used to this.”

“Let’s rebel and take a nap at Sears,” Stevie laughed. Right then, a salesperson came up.

“Do you and your boyfriend like it?” She asked with a giggle. Stevie smiled.

“It’s great but we have a few more to try out,” She told her. Izzy noticed that she didn’t say “he’s not my boyfriend”. 

“Well, if you need anything, I’ll be over there,” She told them before walking away. Stevie rolled onto her side.

“Wanna go try out another one?” She asked. “Or should we just order however many in this style?”

Looking into her eyes, Izzy felt his mind racing. He wanted to say “let's try all of them” or maybe “let’s lay here forever” or maybe “oh my God do you have any idea how much I love you?”

But when he opened his mouth, all that came was a choked, “This one seems good.”

“Well, okay then,” Stevie smiled and got up. “I’m gonna go look at some bedding now. I think they have those sets that have everything all in one. Do you wanna come with me?” She bit her lip slightly. She wanted to take the reins and ask Izzy or Duff out, but most of the people she talked to said that they should make the first move. So Stevie was left waiting for someone, who wasn’t Kelly, to flirt with her or _something_.

“Yeah, as long as I can have something in black,” Izzy smirked. Stevie headed over to the bedding, writing on a little notebook what the furniture they needed would be. There were shelves upon shelves of bedding and Stevie just stared at them. Her head was starting to hurt and she felt really tired.

“So, uh, see anything you like?” Stevie asked, gravitating to a purple set. Izzy watched her for a moment before finding his own set in black

“Here,” He told her, “You feeling okay?”

“I’m great. Just tired,” She told him, grinning. “Why don’t we pick out for everyone else?”

“Yeah, sure,” Izzy replied. His eyes almost immediately fell on what had to be child’s bedding, green with bright, cartoonish flowers all over it. Grinning mischievously, he pointed at the garish pattern.

“Oh, we’re definitely getting that one for Vince.”

~~~~~~~

“No, no, no!” Axl yelled, “You’re doing it wrong!”

“I’m just bagging up the trash! How am I doing it wrong?” Vince asked, glaring at the redhead.

“Well, for starters, _you’re_ not in the bag,” Axl shot back. Duff groaned.

“Can you two be civil for like five minutes?” Duff asked.

“He started it!” Both yelled at the same time. Mick pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Where the hell is Slash?” He asked, “Why isn’t he here trying to help us?”

“Because he’s probably sleeping,” Duff rolled his eyes, “Or trying to find more snakes around the garden.”

“I swear, we need to put a bell on him,” Axl muttered.

“Whatever, I’m sure I’ll fucking trip over him soon enough,” Duff grumbled bitterly, sweeping a pile of debris into a small pan.

Given how large the house was, they were making good progress. They’d gotten rid of the cobwebs and layers of dust, and the decades old trash and bottles were cleared away.

"I see we've made progress even with all the screeching," Vince muttered. 

"I'll show you screeching," Axl growled, "Baz isn't here and he's like 85% of my self control."

"Chill out," Mick stood between the frontmen, "We're lucky we got this place. Don't fuck it up."

"Guys! There's more buildings out here!" Slash called from outside.

"That's great but you're supposed to be helping us clean _this_ one!" Duff told him.

“But we’re barely even seen the whole place!” Slash whined.

“You know we gotta have this done before Stevie gets home and cuts off all of our balls,” Vince told him.

“Yeah, I saw the way you were looking at Kelly,” Mick told Vince, “You might need them.” Slash glared slightly at Vince under his hair before he huffed and went to get a mop. Axl was about to say something when there was a noise at the front door.

“Hey guys! Let me in!” Baz called. Axl went to the door to find Baz with a cart that had three mattresses on it.

“What’s this?” Axl asked.

“Beds babe!” Baz gave him a kiss, “Oh, the cart? I just thought it would be handy. And it was just sitting outside of Sears.”

“You just stole a cart from Sears?” Mick asked, arms crossed.

“Well yeah. They’re good for it. They’re loaded,” Baz smirked as he brought in the mattresses. “Here’s the first three. I gotta get the rest of them.”

As the teleporter popped away for the second haul, Slash merely shrugged, “Hey, we’ve stolen worse.” He and Duff got to work dragging the mattresses into various bedrooms as Sebastian brought the rest of their haul. By the time he had brought all the mattresses and bedding, the Skid Row singer was panting, collapsing face down onto the mattresses still on the cart.

“You alive, man?” Vince questioned, poking his shoulder only to have his hand slapped away by Axl.

“Yeah, yeah, no, I’m good,” Baz mumbled, “Just… Just need a minute.”

As they waited for Sebastian to recover so they could move the rest of the mattresses, Duff tilted his head and squinted at the singer, a thought from earlier returning to him.

“Slash,” he asked, voice serious, “should I dye my hair black?”

“I swear to god, I will never escape this bullshit,” Slash sighed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Duff asked.

“Nothing,” Slash grumbled, “God, I can’t wait to sleep on a brand new mattress.”

“Stevie’s getting bed frames delivered,” Baz mumbled, “Said it wouldn’t be fair for me to keep having to teleport everything.”

“Good call,” Axl nodded, draping himself casually across the other singer’s back, “This is a lot for one day.”

“She told me not to do all these but I was like, challenge accepted!” Baz laughed, “I’m starting to feel better. I wanna go to the grocery store. The one we’re going to is the one that gives out all the samples!”

“Man, he gets free samples while we’re stuck here cleaning?” Slash pouted.

“They’ll bring back food for all of us, you big baby,” Axl rolled his eyes, hopping to his feet as Sebastian stood, stretching his arms over his head.

“Alright, see you guys in a bit!” And with one last ‘pop’, he was gone again.

“God, he bounces back fast,” Vince announced. Axl smirked.

“You should see him at night,” Axl winked, “Now come on, let’s get these mattresses into the rooms and ready for the rest of the stuff!”

With only minimal complaining, the group got back to work setting up their new home.

~~~~~~~

Sebastian stumbled just slightly as he materialized in front of the wholesale store Kelly had said they’d be going to next. Sure enough, the group was out front waiting for him, having managed to beat him there while he was taking his break.

Grinning widely, he jogged over to the cluster of musicians, “Alright, everything’s back at the house! Now let’s get some grub, I’ve been looking forward to this part all day!”

“It’s just the grocery store,” Kelly shook his head. They headed inside, signing up for their membership cards, before starting to walk around the store. Stevie was doing fine, but by the third sample station, she stopped accepting it, and by the time they filled up the second cart with bulk goods, she was so tired she could’ve slept on one of the display models.

“Guys?” She asked, “Will someone walk out with me to the car please?”

“I got it! You guys keep going,” Tommy told them, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and heading back out through the store.

“What’s that about?” Kelly asked Nikki, who shrugged. Izzy came back from grabbing a big thing of paper towel, frowning when he saw Stevie gone.

“Where’d Stevie go?” he asked, throwing the paper towels into the cart.

“She went out to the car with Tommy,” Nikki explained.

“She’d been kind of off all day,” Kelly chimed in, “Maybe she’s sick or something.”

Izzy hummed, glancing towards the exit in concern, but following after the other two boys regardless. Maybe Stevie just needed to sit down.

Meanwhile, Stevie had thought the same thing, but sitting wasn’t helping at all. She felt drained, like she wanted to sleep for a week, and she had to lean heavily on Tommy, barely able to keep herself sitting upright. 

“Hey, you okay?” Tommy asked as he held her up.

“Mmmm,” Was all Stevie answered. Tommy had climbed inside the back of the car with her in his arms. It was only in the shaded interior of the car that Tommy could see that she was glowing a pale green.

What the fuck?

“Stevie? What’s going on?” Tommy asked. He knew she would glow consistently, but it was usually more golden, or yellow, sometimes orange. But never green. She looked like a glow in the dark star that was fading out. But Stevie was already asleep, her head resting on his chest, and didn’t answer.

“Stevie?” He asked again, shaking her lightly. She murmured a little, but otherwise stayed quiet. Okay, Tommy was officially freaked out. His head darted around, as if he could find a solution within the beat up vehicle. He didn’t want to leave her, but he didn’t know how much longer the guys would be, and he was super fucking worried. Maneuvering himself slowly, he gently laid the other drummer down across the backseat, closing the door softly before sprinting back into the store in a gust of wind.

“I’m just saying, just cause we have money doesn’t mean everything needs to be name brand!” Kelly was arguing with Nikki, each holding a bag of chips that were nearly identical.

Izzy pinched the bridge of his nose, “I swear, if you two don’t get your shit together, I’m gonna-”

“Guyssomethingiswrongwithstevieshe’sgreenlikeliterallygreenIdon’tknowwhat’swrong!”

The three men were nearly blown back as Tommy skid to a stop in front of them, a frantic look on his face as he spit out what was probably supposed to be words, but instead just sounded like gibberish.

“Woah, babe, slow down,” Nikki frowned in concern, tossing the chips to the side as he put his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, “What’s wrong?”

“Stevie!” The speedster forced himself to speak at human speeds, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but she’s super out of it and she’s glowing, like, green!”

“Shit,” Izzy groaned, “Just hurry up and get some fucking chips!” Izzy hurried outside, leaving everyone confused. They hurried up their shopping as Izzy headed out to the car. Sure enough, she was laying in the backseat, glowing slightly green. Izzy opened the back door and gently pulled Stevie to him.

“I-Iz?” Stevie asked weakly before falling back asleep. Izzy held onto her. The one time he needed Duff and he wasn’t around. He glared at the overcast sky as if he could stare it into submission.

The driver’s door suddenly opened, Kelly sticking his head in and practically throwing bags of food into the front seat. He could hear the trunk opening as well.

“Alright dude,” Kelly asked seriously, “What’s going on?” He bit his lip anxiously as he saw the muted green glow of the Guns drummer.

“This happens when she doesn’t get enough sun,” Izzy explained, “It makes her really sick. It’s Hell for her,” he pet her hair softly as he spoke, “We need to get back to the house so Duff can clear the fucking clouds.”

“I’ll teleport and take some of this stuff with me,” Baz told them.

“I can run home,” Tommy shrugged.

“And leave me here? I’ll piggyback.” Nikki added.

“We’ll meet you there,” Kelly nodded and started the car, taking off. Baz grabbed the leftover things and teleported home while Nikki climbed on Tommy’s back.

“I deserve a backrub after this,” Tommy groaned.

“I’ll do that and more. Let’s just get home,” Nikki promised. Tommy smirked and took off.

In the backseat of the car, Izzy held onto Stevie, focusing on staying solid. This wasn’t the first time he had seen her sick like this, but it was still scary. There was always the “what if”. What if she didn’t stop glowing green? What if they’re someplace where they can’t get sun? What if…

Izzy shook his head and focused on Stevie.

There was no good in focusing on the what ifs- Stevie had always bounced back, and she would do so again this time. She was strong as Hell, and no weather would get her down for long. Without even thinking about it, he gave the drummer a soft kiss on her hair. She’d be fine.

In the front seat, Kelly furrowed his brow as he looked up at the long road leading up to their neighborhood before snorting loudly. Ahead of the car in the distance, he saw a few bolts of lightning before the clouds started retreating from the same spot, the sun slowly spreading as the sky cleared. Kelly shook his head.

“I swear, Duff should have been a theater kid.”

~~~~~~~~

"I'm back!" Baz announced as he teleported into the living room and dropped the bags, "Duff, man!"

"What?" Duff came down the stairs having dropped the last mattress off.

"We need you Mr. Wizard," Baz told him. "Our little Starshine is sun sick."

“What?!” Duff shrieked, a few flashes of lighting coming through the window, “How? It’s been sunny all week, this is the first overcast day in a fuckin while!” Even as he ranted though, his irises and pupils faded as his eyes slowly turned a clear, bright white, and the yard outside was soon bathed in sunshine, the clouds spiraling into a rapidly expanding circle of clear sky.

“I dunno man, that’s just what Izzy said,” Sebastian shrugged, glancing away. He always thought Duff’s eyes were kind of creepy when he did more intense weather manipulation, “She was like, this dull green color.”

Frowning, Duff hummed in concern, “Weird…” His white eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on clearing the clouds from as much of the city as he could. Just a few minutes later the car pulled up. Kelly started carrying food in as Izzy carried Stevie in. 

"What happened?" Duff asked.

"Remember how excited she was yesterday and was glowing a shit ton?" Izzy pointed out, "This is the result."

“Fuck, I didn’t even think of that,” Duff looked at the sleeping blonde sadly, “Goddammit, girl, why you always gotta be so excited about everything.”

“Aw, poor Glowstick,” Vince cooed, “I feel bad for complaining about all the times she blinded me yesterday.”

“As you should,” Axl huffed, though he shared the worried gaze of the rest of the house. 

“She’ll be fine, guys,” Slash reassured the non-Guns members, who had never witnessed this sort of malady with Stevie before, “She just needs to sleep it off and soak in some sun.”

"I'll take her to her room," Izzy told them, carrying her down the hall. When he looked behind him, the rest of the housemates were following. "Guys, she's fine. Chill out."

"I just, I've been around her a lot and never seen her like that…" Kelly admitted.

Izzy softened, nodding sympathetically, “Yeah, I know.” He let them continue to follow him without comment, the group crowded around the doorway as Izzy set Stevie down gently on the new mattress in the corner of her room. Sighing contentedly, the drummer murmured unintelligibly as she rolled over to spread out on the bed like a starfish, sleepily soaking in the sun shining through the large, numerous windows. It was hard to see in the bright room, but they liked to think she looked a little less green.

Tugging her boots off and tossing them aside, Izzy nodded at the crowd, shooing them away, “Alright guys, let’s go,” he said softly, “let’s let her rest.” Begrudgingly, they all shuffled back into the living room where piles of bedding and food still sat abandoned on the floor.

“Right, so,” Kelly shook his head to clear his thoughts, “The fridge is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so we mostly got nonperishable shit.”

"Oh chips! Yes!" Vince called out, "You guys are the best."

"Who picked out the bedding?" Axl quizzed.

"Mainly Stevie but I helped," Izzy told them, "Why, got a problem with it?"

"I mean...there's pink stuff…" the frontman grumbled. 

“Check it out, there’s also some black sheets too!” Sebastian pointed out.

“Hands off!” Izzy snapped, snatching the bundle of black fabric away, “That one’s mine!”

“Ooooh, so it’s a first come, first serve situation?” Sebastian questioned.

There were a few beats of silence as they all stared at the pile in front of them. Then, chaos erupted as they all leapt forward, elbowing, wrestling, and shouting as they all fought over the different patterns, designs, and colors.

Izzy shook his head in horror, clutching his plain bedding to his chest tighter as he backed away from the madness. 

Eventually, two sets of sheets remained- a soft purple one (which Slash had reluctantly relinquished when Izzy told him it was Stevie’s), and a bright pink one with little stars printed across it.

"Look what the twins get," Kelly chuckled. Just then, Tommy walked in, dragging his feet in exhaustion, with Nikki beside him, "Oh, speak of the devils!"

"What's up?" Nikki asked.

"Here's your bedding!" Mick grinned.

"No. No way." Nikki shook his head, "No."

“Sorry, dudes,” Vince snickered, “You were just too slow.”

“I hate all of you,” Tommy whined, laying down directly on the floor, “You’re the worst roommates ever.”

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Mick smirked.

As Tommy and Nikki tried to bribe different people to switch sheets with them, Kelly finally got a chance to really look around him. The house still definitely needed work, what with all the loose floorboards and peeling wallpaper and such, but the lack of dust and grime actually did make a big difference. 

“This place is sprucing up pretty nice,” Duff commented, clutching his polka dot bedding protectively as he stood next to Kelly, “Give it a couple weeks and the property value will probably skyrocket,” he grinned, elbowing the other bassist teasingly.

Kelly snorted, “Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely not as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“Wow, tone down the enthusiasm there, Nickels, you’re shining brighter than Stevie.”

“Shut up.”

Chuckling, Duff made his way back to his room to set up his things. While his stuff had been moved over the day before, he hadn’t taken the time to actually put the room together. He figured now was as good a time as any to put up some posters and get shit organized. 

The hours passed steadily as the room came together. Books, records, and various pig themed knick knacks filled the tall bookcases lining the walls. His new bed was shoved into a corner by the lone window in the room and piled with both the new bed sheets as well as the blankets he had brought with him, and his bass was placed carefully on its stand. Before he knew it, the sun was setting and his stomach was growling angrily. 

He reluctantly headed downstairs where everyone was digging through the food. Duff grabbed an apple and started to snack on it when he looked around.

“Stevie come out yet?” He asked.

“No. I think she’s still sleeping,” Slash told him. Duff nodded and grabbed some different foods and drinks and headed up towards Stevie’s bedroom. She was pretty much laying the same way she had been when Izzy dropped her off, although now she was cuddling a blanket someone had left for her. Duff couldn’t help but smile.

As much as he hated to wake her, food and water would help her feel better just as much as the rest would. Sitting next to the mattress, he shook her shoulder gently.

“Stevie,” he whispered, chuckling when her only response was a soft grumble as she buried her face into her pillow, “Stevie, come on, wake up. I brought you some food.” The grumbling continued, and Duff shook his head fondly. Grabbing a bag of Cheetos from the pile he had brought with him, he pulled the bag open and held it open by the drummer’s face.

“Come ooooon,” he said teasingly, “I got your favorite!”

As expected, the scent of the snack had Stevie blinking awake, turning towards Duff and blindly snatching the bag from him as he laughed.

“My favorite,” She mumbled, eating the Cheetos lazily.

“You’re going to turn into Chester if you keep eating those the way you are,” He chuckled. Stevie just shrugged.

“I’m not the super fast one in this house,” She told him. Duff laughed and went to stand up. “Where are you going?”

“Back downstairs so you can eat in peace?” He shrugged. “I got you a Sprite too, and some other snacks and-”

“Can...can you stay?” Stevie asked.

The request caught Duff off guard, and he felt his heart beat just a little faster. “Are you sure?” he asked, “I don’t want to disturb your rest.”

But Stevie shook her head, “No, I…” she trailed off, “I dunno. I’m feeling better but I just… don’t want to be alone right now.” She clutched the bag of Cheetos to her chest and burrowed down into her blankets, “Never mind, it’s stupid…”

“No, no, no!” Duff practically shouted, “You’re fine, Sunshine,” he carefully laid down next to her, self-consciousness causing him to leave a few inches of space between them.

But it only took a moment for Stevie to scoot over and press herself next to the bassist, resting her head on his shoulder, “Thanks, Duff.”

“Anytime,” he smiled, putting an arm around her to pull her just a little closer. Then, after a moment, he grinned, “You _are_ going to have to share the snacks though.”

“Mmmmm, maybe,” She laughed. “I don’t know if I should though.”

“Why not?” Duff asked.

“Oh, I dunno,” She snuggled closer to him and his heart was racing as fast as Tommy running to the liquor store. God, he wanted to just kiss her so bad, he wanted to ask her out, he wanted to tell her how he had loved her for so long but he didn’t even know how to start. He ran his fingers through her hair, trying to talk himself into doing something. _Anything _. Was it punk rock for his hands to be this sweaty over a crush?__

__“Hey Duff,” Stevie bit her lip and looked up at him, “C-can I tell you something?”_ _

__“Of course!” Duff turned to look down at her, suddenly concerned, “You know you can tell me anything.”_ _

__“I, uh, I might kinda have a crush on someone. He’s tall, with blond hair, and he’s really sweet,” She looked down, suddenly shy._ _

__Furrowing his brows, Duff mentally listed all of their friends, trying to think of who matched that description. It took him longer than he cared to admit to finally click on what she meant, his face flushing, “Wait… really?” He was afraid to get his hopes up. Maybe she was describing someone Duff just hadn’t met before. He was sure there were lots of tall blondes in LA. Oh God, what if she had run into his brother? He might die._ _

__“Yeah,” She admitted, “I...Duff, I like you…” She smiled a little, waiting for rejection._ _

__Duff didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t find the words to express how _light_ he felt hearing her say that, the weight of all his stress and longing suddenly gone in a fraction of a second. He didn’t think any words existed to explain how happy and disbelieving and relieved and overjoyed he was. How could he possibly explain it?_ _

__So he settled for kissing her instead._ _

__Stevie froze. Was she still asleep and dreaming? She felt Duff start to pull back, so she followed him, returning the kiss. Duff wrapped his arms around her and held her close as he kissed her. They both smiled into the kiss, eyes closed as they got lost in each other._ _

__Meanwhile, Izzy decided to check on Stevie, having not seen her since carrying her to her room. Not wanting to wake her if she was still resting, he stuck his head through the door quietly to make sure she was alright._ _

__But what he found was her and Duff in a liplock, and he felt his heart sink._ _

__He pulled himself back into the hallway rapidly, staring at the door between him and the two blondes. It took him a minute to make his legs work, to carry him back to his room, ignoring any attempts made by his many roommates to talk to him along the way. When he was finally safely in the confines of his own room, he sat heavily on his bed._ _

__He shouldn’t be upset, he thought to himself. Had he really thought he had a chance with her? He was the quiet, dark, brooding one, and she was sunshine and joy. Her and Duff made more sense._ _

__It still hurt though. He laid back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, letting his eyes drift shut._ _

__Downstairs, Duff and Stevie slowly separated, both with smiles on their faces. Duff cupped her cheek, but he noticed that her eyes were heavy._ _

__“Why don’t we lay down?” He suggested._ _

__“That sounds great,” She yawned. They moved the snacks off her bed and Duff grabbed the blanket to cover them up. He wrapped his arms around Stevie, placing one last kiss on the crown of her head before they both drifted off to sleep._ _


	5. Chapter 5

The sun was shining the next morning as another day of settling into the house got started. Kelly was sitting in the kitchen, sipping some coffee from the coffee maker that they had picked up the day before, and was reveling in the silence. He was watching some animals running around the backyard, looking at the pool and feeling disappointed by it not having any water. It was so peaceful.

But that was short lived. He suddenly heard Axl and Vince arguing about something as they came down to the main floor. Kelly groaned and blindly grabbed a bottle of booze to pour into his coffee.

“Good idea,” Nikki muttered as he entered the kitchen, snagging the whiskey bottle out of Kelly’s hand.

“Hey, give me that,” Kelly grumbled, “I need that more than you do.”

“Why?” Nikki asked.

“Lot of noises. I couldn’t sleep,” Kelly grumbled. The house itself was old, often creaking and groaning if it was even remotely windy, not to mention some people didn’t know how to keep it down when they had a good time. He didn’t know if it was the terror twins or Sebastian and Axl- he had kept his face thoroughly buried in his pillow specifically to avoid knowing- but he was starting to think they might need a house meeting about fucking etiquette.

“Morning,” Tommy grumbled as he came into the kitchen, Vince and Axl standing in the living room arguing. “What are Ginger Barbie and Malibu Barbie arguing about now?”

“Beats me,” Kelly sighed, “They argue over if it’s raining or sunny when it’s snowing.”

“What is their issue, anyway?” Tommy pondered, leaning his head on his hand as he sat beside Kelly at the table.

“Who knows. One day Axl just sort of decided that Vince was his mortal enemy.”

Nikki, Tommy, and Kelly jumped as Slash’s voice came from the seat across the table, the guitarist seeming to materialize as he turned to look at the singers in question.

“Jesus FUCK, Slash, how long have you been here?” Kelly snapped.

"Little bit," Slash shrugged, "Hey I just noticed something."

"What?" Nikki asked.

"Kelly kinda looks like you guys," he tilted his head, looking between the three of them curiously.

“You’re just noticing that?” Mick wandered through the kitchen, raising an eyebrow at Slash, “Fuck, when I first saw Kelly I thought for sure he was some fucked up lovechild of these two idiots.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Kelly rolled his eyes. But when he turned to look at Nikki and Tommy, he nearly spit out his coffee.

The terror twins were staring at him with that particular glint in their eyes that said that Kelly was about to have a bad time.

Tommy sniffed dramatically, grasping Nikki’s hands, “Oh babe, he’s beautiful! I love him!”

“T-Bone, I know we never discussed kids, but-”

“He’s perfect! And he’s a bass player just like you!”

“I’ll cherish him forever!” Nikki wiped a fake tear away.

Kelly leapt to his feet, backing away as the two men lunged for him, making grabby hands and kissy faces as they chased him around the table, crying about “son, let us love you!” and “give your old man a kiss, kiddo!”

“I’m fucking older than all of you! Fuck off!” he screeched, ducking behind Mick as a human shield. 

"Don't talk to your dads that way," Mick grumbled.

"Get away from me!" Kelly called out, getting Vince and Axl's attention.

"What's going on?" Vince asked.

“Tommy and Nikki just realized that Kelly is their son,” Slash explained nonchalantly.

“They’re just now figuring that out?” Axl raised an eyebrow, the two singers abandoning their argument in favor of watching as Nikki finally managed to wrap his arms around Kelly’s waist, hoisting the other bassist into the air.

“You’ve gotten so big! They grow up so fast!” He snickered, Kelly squirming and flailing as Tommy started planting kisses on his cheeks.

“You’re dead to me! You hear me!! Get out of my house!!”

The twins were about to make an argument when a blood curdling scream could be heard.

"What the fuck?" Kelly wiggled out of Nikki's grasp and went running across the house with everyone else following. Duff came out of the hall bathroom, hair wet, and Izzy walked through his door.

"Was that Stevie?" Axl asked. Izzy quickly went to her room. She threw a shoe and it went through him.

"Where. Is. It?" She was tearing boxes and bags apart.

“Where’s what?” Slash asked, barely managing to duck in time as a boot was hurled carelessly his way.

“Mr. Cuddles!” She yelled, throwing her drumsticks at the wall. 

“What the fuck is a Mr. Cuddles?” Nikki asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Stevie’s stupid stuffed bear that’s dressed like Batman,” Axl commented. Stevie glared at the frontman.

“It’s not stupid!” She hissed, “I know I had him! Or… I thought I did…” she tugged at her wild hair anxiously, “Where the fuck did I put him?!”

“Okay, alright,” Duff put his hands on her shoulders, trying to soothe her, “Stuff is always getting shuffled around in moves. I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”

“But I’ve looked everywhere!” She cried, “Izzy gave him to me. He’s my favorite stuffed animal!” Izzy froze. He didn’t realize she had kept it. “And now I can’t find him…”

“Maybe he just got mixed up with someone else’s stuff!” Tommy suggested, “I mean, for the most part Baz and I were collecting everyone’s shit-”

“You’re welcome by the way,” Sebastian pouted.

“-And the stuff we didn’t grab all got shoved into Kelly’s car. So maybe it just got, y’know, misplaced."

Stevie looked up then and the guys all froze. There were actual, legit tears in her eyes. None of them had ever seen Stevie actually cry before, and they didn’t really know how to react.

“I, uh, I’ll go check my car!” Kelly declared, running off.

“We’ll all go check our stuff,” Duff added and the guys all scattered, all except for Izzy.

“You kept it?” He asked. She sniffled and nodded.

“I always kept it under my blankets so I wouldn’t get made fun of,” She whispered. Izzy took a step forward.

“We’ll find it, I promise,” He told her, carefully wrapping his arms around her. She leaned into him, closing her eyes. It was peaceful for a moment.

“We can’t find him!” Someone yelled, cutting the moment. Izzy lost control and Stevie fell right through him, landing on the floor.

“Fuck,” Izzy cursed, moving to help her stand, “Sorry, sorry, I just-”

Stevie couldn’t help but giggle. It wasn’t often that she got to see the calm and cool Izzy Stradlin blushing, but here he was, stuttering and flustered. It was cute.

“It’s okay, I’m alright,” she reassured him, brushing off her shirt with a smile.

“I’m really sorry,” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“I promise, it’s cool,” She took a step closer to him, locking eyes with him. There seemed to be a bit of a spark as Izzy reached out and brushed a lock of her hair off her cheek. 

Izzy felt his heart pounding in his chest, as it usually did around Stevie. He thought of the opportunities he had let slip through his fingers the day before, and how he had caught Stevie and Duff together. But… she was leaning towards him too, looking into his eyes with a soft smile. If he leaned in just a little bit more…

“STEVIE, WE FOUND IT!” 

The two jumped apart like they had been electrocuted, Sebastian's loud, high pitched shout ringing through the house. Stevie turned to the door as Baz ran in with the bear in his hands. Her face lit up, her energy back, and made the two men see spots.

“You found him!” She took it from him and hugged it. “Thanks Baz!” She kissed his cheek.

“Anytime sweetie,” He smiled and left, sighs of relief resonating off the rest of the housemates.

Duff came jogging into the room, a large smile on his face when he saw Stevie clutching her stuffed animal, “See? I told you we’d find him,” he pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her head.

Shuffling awkwardly, Izzy smiled weakly, “Yeah, I’m really glad you found him,” he said as he caught Stevie’s eyes. Clearing his throat, he walked out of the room, “I think that was more than enough excitement for the day. I’ll see you guys later,” he called over his shoulder, rushing upstairs and gliding back into the safety of his room.

“You okay?” Duff asked, noticing Stevie staring.

“I’m good,” She told him, snuggling into his side. “The rest of the stuff comes in today. I should go downstairs to wait for them.”

“Or you could stay up here for a bit,” Duff placed a kiss on her neck. It helped a little, but she kept thinking of that almost kiss with Izzy, and how she had really wanted it to happen. It was frustrating though- she really did like Duff. Love him even. She had thought that her other crush would go away, or fade, or something after finally confessing to one of them. 

“Stevie! There’s a truck here!” Slash called up their stairs, making Duff groan.

“Don’t go,” He pulled her back to him. She giggled a little.

“I gotta,” She told him. “We have tonight.” She stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss before darting off to the front of the house before Duff could test her self control even more.

Stepping outside, she found Kelly signing a clipboard as a few large boxes were wheeled out of a moving truck. Sebastian turned and grinned when he saw Stevie.

“Dude, we finally have a fridge! Now we can stop chugging room temp beers and shit!”

“Honestly, I’m kind of excited to have a bed frame,” Kelly admitted, “I’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since the 20s. I feel so sophisticated now,” he grinned. 

“You and me both,” Stevie laughed. The guys brought everything in, Stevie tipped them, and they were gone. Stevie pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

“The hair is up! This is not a drill!” Axl teased. Stevie shot him a look.

“Just for that remark, you and Vince and start carrying bed frames upstairs,” Stevie told the redhead, who instantly shut up.

“That is cruel and unusual punishment!” “What the fuck did I do??” Axl and Vince cried out at the same time. Stevie only glared, and the two singers groaned, but did as they were told, shooting insults back and forth under their breath as they began carrying the furniture into different bedrooms.

Snickering, Sebastian moved towards some of the remaining bed frames, “I’ll deal with the upstairs stuff,” he volunteered.

“Are you sure?” Stevie asked. “You used a lot of energy yesterday…”

“I got this!” Sebastian smiled and poofed away with one of the pieces. Stevie shrugged and worked on the fridge, getting it set up and starting to put the drinks they had in it.

“We need real food,” She told them. “Veggies and meat and cheese. God, I love cheese.”

“Meat and cheese I agree with, but I am very against the veggie comment,” Slash pouted.

“Look, I love junk food too,” Stevie lectured, “but we can’t live off it forever.”

“Incorrect,” Kelly chimed in, grinning as Stevie swatted the back of his head.

“You don’t count,” she huffed.

“Hey! Don’t talk to our son that way!” Tommy appeared in a gust of wind, nearly knocking Kelly off his feet as he swept him into an embrace.

“Yeah, how dare you bully our child! He’s never done anything wrong ever in his life!” Nikki added dramatically.

“...What?” Stevie stared between them in confusion.

“Save me,” Kelly pleaded, unable to escape from Tommy’s grip.

“When did Nikki knock you up?” Duff asked with a laugh. Tommy just smirked.

“I mean, Kelly does kinda look like a mix of them,” Stevie shrugged. “So, is it Kelly Nickels Sixx-Lee?”

“No, it’s Kelly “Someone Kill Me”,” the bassist muttered.

“Oh, don’t be like that sport,” Nikki ruffled his hair. Kelly groaned.

“Kelly, want to go grocery shopping with me?” Stevie asked, “We need refrigerated food.”

“Yes!” Kelly ran over to her, “Thank you.”

“Have our boy home by 8, you troublemaker,” Nikki chuckled, leaning on Tommy’s shoulder as Kelly flipped them off.

“Want me to come too?” Duff asked enthusiastically, only to deflate when Stevie shook her head.

“Nah, we’ll be fine, we’re not getting too much,” she smiled amicably at him, “Just keep the skies clear for me, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course,” he returned the smile weakly.

Stevie felt a little stab of guilt. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to spend time with Duff, or that she wasn’t overjoyed at what had happened the night before. But the incident with Izzy had shaken her a bit, and she wanted some space away from both of them to hopefully clear her head a bit. She walked over to Duff to whisper in his ear.

“Kelly needs a save. But maybe you and I can go out later?” She felt relief when she saw Duff’s eyes light up and a smile spread on his face.

“That sounds great,” He gave her a hug. “I hope you guys had a talk with your son about the birds and the bees.”

“Oh my god,” Kelly groaned. “We are leaving. Right now,” he grabbed Stevie’s hand and practically ran for the door, Nikki, Tommy, and Duff cackling behind them. They headed out to Kelly’s car.

“You okay over there?” Stevie asked with a bit of a laugh.

“This is going to be a long, long time living with them,” Kelly sighed. “But it’s not as awful as I thought it was going to be, honestly.” He headed towards the cheaper grocery store in their area.

“Yeah,” She nodded. Kelly could tell that something was a little off.

“What about you, Sunshine?” he asked, “How are you handling the herd of new roommates?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” she smiled quickly, “I mean, we were all friends before, so it’s not a big deal or anything.”

Kelly hummed in response, and they lapsed into companionable silence until they eventually found themselves pulling into the parking lot.

“Not too busy,” Stevie smiled. “We could have a cart race.” She got out of the car and waited for Kelly before heading inside.

“So, you and Duff seemed kinda close this morning,” Kelly pointed out as they got a cart.

“Well, something might have happened last night,” Stevie told him, biting her lip.

Just as they were starting down the aisle, Kelly ground to a halt, Stevie bumping into his back before he spun around, “And I’m just hearing about this now?” He put his hands on his hips, smirking, “Spill. Tell me everything.”

“Well, Duff brought me dinner last night, and we kissed,” Stevie told him. “Other things happened that you don’t need the details for.”

“You’re no fun.”

“And then I almost kissed Izzy this morning,”

“Woah, hold up,” Kelly stopped her, “You’re telling me that both the guys you have crushes on made moves on you?”

“Well, Izzy didn’t get to really make a move, and Duff’s kinda my boyfriend now and... I’m just so conflicted Nickels.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” He put his hands on her shoulders when he saw Stevie starting to get upset, sparing a moment to glare at the old lady huffing at them. He didn’t care that they were blocking the aisle, could she not see his friend was having a crisis?

“Have you talked to Duff about it?” he asked gently, “I mean about the whole Izzy thing. Correct me if I’m wrong but… did you want him to kiss you?”

“Yeah I wanted to,” Stevie sighed. “But I just got with Duff and I thought that being with him would make the feelings for Izzy go away. What do I do?” She looked up at Kelly. “Like, I’ve never had two guys like me before. I’m lucky if I’ve gotten one at a time.”

“Hey, that’s not true,” Kelly told her.

“It is. And I don’t know what to do with the two guys I like liking me back!”

“I mean, if you like them both and they both like you, why not just date both of them?”

Stevie snapped her head up to blink at him, “What?”

Kelly shrugged, “Yeah, I mean, if they’re down for it. Oh man, I had a boyfriend and a girlfriend at the same time back in the 80s-”

“We’re in the-”

“The other 80s. Anyway, it was a good time,” He shrugged again.

“I don’t know if they’d go for it,” Stevie told him, “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“That’s the spirit!” He smiled. “Now, let’s get some frozen pizzas!”

“We’re supposed to be getting healthy food,” Stevie shook her head.

“Pizza has tomato sauce,” He opened the freezer door. “It’s healthy-ish.”

“At least grab some pepperoni for me,” Stevie sighed in defeat, several boxes being tossed into the cart before they continued through the store.

“So, what’s up with you?” Stevie asked as they looked at the fruits and veggies.

“Ugh, well, I’m horny as hell and I can’t even try to talk _you_ into anything because apparently you’re doubly taken,” he groaned, receiving a few more glares from scandalized customers around them.

“Oh my god,” She laughed a little, “There’s like, three single people at the house, right? Maybe you should hook up with one of them,” She winked, “Or I know a couple people that wouldn’t mind you having their numbers.”

“I knew there was a reason I loved you,” he teased, pulling Stevie into a quick side hug.

“Love you too, but you’re hopeless Mr. Nickles Sixx-Lee,” She giggled a little bit.

Kelly groaned, “I can’t believe they latched onto that dumb joke so much.”

“Awwww be nice to your dads!”

“I changed my mind, I hate you.”

“Then I don’t have to share my numbers,” She told him, making him whine. “So, do we need anything else?”

After making a quick detour to the liquor aisle, they eventually decided that they had enough to satisfy the household for at least a little while. The novelty of actually having money hadn’t worn off yet, and Stevie was practically giddy as she paid for all the bags of food, practically skipping as they made their way back to the car.

Kelly shook his head fondly, “I’m glad to see you feeling better today, Glowstick.”

“Yeah, me too,” Stevie looked up and smiled at the clear, sunny skies before they got into the car and made their way back to the house. They parked and carried everything into the house, Kelly thankful that he didn’t see Nikki or Tommy upon entry. Duff was sitting in the living room, Slash was in a chair by him, about to fall asleep.

“Hey Duff,” Stevie smiled at him. “Can we go up to my room and talk for a minute?”

“Oooooo, talking already?” Slash teased. “You two move as fast as Speedy Gonzolas up there.”

“Shut up,” Duff laughed, “And go sleep in your fucking room! I swear, I’m gonna start punching seats to check for you.” Slash flipped him off as he and Stevie made their way down the hall. Just as they were turning the corner, Izzy drifted downstairs, looking at their retreating backs sadly before deciding that actually he wasn’t really hungry after all, turning on his heel to go back upstairs to hide.


	6. Chapter 6

Stevie shut the door and was surprised to find Duff’s lips on hers within seconds of the latch clicking. She let him kiss her for a moment before she ducked to the side and sat on the edge of her bed.

“I meant actually talk,” She laughed.

“Oh, that wasn’t just an excuse?” Duff’s cheeks were red, “Oops.”

Shaking her head fondly, Stevie chuckled and patted the mattress beside her, “It’s okay.” She waited until he was sitting beside her to continue, wringing her hands nervously. She was well aware that there were a million ways this conversation could go wrong, including Duff storming out angrily and never speaking to her again. 

“So, I wanted to talk because…” She fumbled to find the right words, “I really like you,” she finally blurted out.

“I… like you too?” Duff responded slowly, “Not that I don’t like hearing it, but didn’t we kind of have this conversation last night?”

“No, yeah, we did,” Stevie cursed herself. Why was she so bad at this? “I just wanted to start with that because… something happened earlier today.” Duff opened his mouth to respond, his face painted with concern, but Stevie cut him off, deciding to just rip the band-aid off, “I almost kissed Izzy. Or, we almost kissed each other. I wanted to kiss him, because I have a crush on him, and I thought it would go away after we got together but it’s not.”

For a moment, they stared at each other in silence, Duff’s face blank before quietly responding, “...Oh.” 

"I'm sorry, and you'll probably hate me, but I was talking to Kelly earlier-"

"That's never a good idea."

"-and, he suggested maybe we could try inviting Izzy in…"

Duff blinked in surprise, “Invite him… huh,” he hummed in consideration, “Well, first of all, I definitely don’t hate you,” he smiled shyly, and Stevie couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“Good,” She laced their fingers together, “because I don’t want to lose you. That’s the whole problem. I like both of you, and can’t bring myself to choose one of you over the other, y’know? But…” she frowned, looking up at him, “would you be okay with something like that? I don’t want you to feel like you have to do something if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“I just… I’ve never been in a relationship like that," Duff admitted.

“Me neither,” Stevie answered, “But, I mean, if Izzy is okay with it, then we can figure it out together, right?”

Duff let out a huff of laughter, “That’s true. And I mean, Izzy _is_ pretty great…” he trailed off, tugging on the dark strand of hair by his neck absently.

Stevie blinked in surprise, “Wait, really?”

“Well, yeah, I… I mean he’s, y’know…”

Stevie felt her jaw drop as she watched a blush spread across Duff’s cheeks as he stuttered. “Oh my God," she exclaimed, "you have a crush on him too??”

“What? No!” But Duff was still blushing, “It’s not a- I mean it’s _Izzy_ , and he’s so-... I haven’t thought about it before!” He shoved her shoulder lightly as she burst out laughing, “Oh shut up!”

"Izzy and Duff sitting in a tree," Stevie sang.

"Oh shut up, you like him too!" Duff started tickling her sides, making her laugh.

"Mercy! I give!" Stevie tried to pull away, but Duff pulled her back, tickling more. Soon they were both out of breath, collapsing to lay next to each other on the bed. After a few minutes, Stevie chuckled, “Man, I envisioned this conversation going a lot worse.”

“Honestly me too,” Duff admitted, “You said you wanted to talk and then you said you liked me and I kept waiting for you to say ‘but just as a friend’.”

They both laughed, “No, I like you just a bit more than that,” Stevie replied, leaning over to give him a quick kiss on the lips. Flopping back onto the bed, she hummed in thought, “So… how do we do this then?”

Duff hesitated before answering, “Do you mind if we wait a bit before talking to Izzy? Or at least sleep on it?” he asked, “I really am down to try this, but I’m still wrapping my head around being with _you_. And I wasn’t lying when I said I hadn’t really thought about Izzy, y’know, _that way_ before.” 

Stevie giggled softly as a faint flush spread across his face again, “You suuuure about that?” she teased, poking his cheek.

Lightly slapping her hand away, Duff pouted, “I don’t- it’s complicated!” He shoved a pillow over Stevie’s face when she started laughing again. “Look all I’m saying is, could we maybe take a day or two to think more about it before we figure out how to bring it up to him?”

In truth, Stevie was impatient. If she had her way, she’d have them knocking on Izzy’s door right now. She’d spent so long wanting both of them, and now it felt like they were so close. Like she had a solution to everything she wanted right at her fingertips. She didn’t want to wait.

But she understood where Duff was coming from, and hey, she’d managed this long, so what was a few more days? She still had one of her boys, and that was already more than she thought she’d get.

“Of course,” she nodded, “that’s totally fine.”

"Good. Now, are we gonna ‘talk’?" Duff wiggled his eyebrows.

"Oh my god, you're horrible," she laughed, lacing her fingers with his, "But the best kind of horrible."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Izzy sighed as he watched the sky outside his window slowly lighten as morning came. He had slept fitfully, and he knew he should grab some breakfast soon given that he had skipped dinner the night before, but he couldn’t seem to make himself get up and face the day. He was well aware that he was moping, but who could blame him? Rolling over to face the wall, he cursed himself for letting himself get his hopes up. 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t known Duff was also crushing on the drummer, so how did he really think this would end? Between the two of them, Izzy didn’t stand a chance. Duff, who was so tall, and bright, and handsome. Who smiled and laughed nearly as much as Stevie, and _literally_ made the sun shine for her.

"Why would she even like me?" Izzy mumbled to himself. As he laid there, his mind continued to dwell on the tall drink that had won her heart. That perfect smile, those long legs, the way he would belly laugh when he told those really lame jokes...

….Wait.

“Why do I have a type?” Izzy groaned. “Why does all this shit happen to me?” He pulled his pillow over his face. It wasn’t fair. Pining after one friend was bad enough, he wasn’t about to brood over _two_. Nope. Not doing it.

Suddenly, a loud BANG BANG BANG sounded against his door, startling him so bad he fell through his bed, grunting as he landed on his back and blinked up at the bottom of his bed frame.

“WAKE THE FUCK UP, STADLIN!” Axl’s voice boomed. How did he manage to be so loud without using his powers? “You’ve had three days off, you lazy fucks, time to get back to work!”

Izzy groaned, listening to Axl’s voice echo through the house as he continued his mission of rousing the members of Guns N’ Roses.

"Holy fuck!" Axl screeched as he backed out of Slash's room. Izzy raised an eyebrow as he walked through his door.

"What's wrong? See slash naked?" Izzy laughed.

"Who said he could have fucking snakes?" Axl snapped.

"That's called a penis, _Bill_." Izzy teased. Axl glared the guitarist down.

"Fuck you, _Jeff_ ," Axl huffed as he walked off. Heading downstairs, he made his way to Duff’s room, but frowned when he saw the door open and no one inside. He shrugged it off, figuring he would track the weather witch down later. Grinning, he placed himself in front of Stevie’s door.

“UP AND AT ‘EM, SUNSHINE!” He yelled, raising his foot to kick the door loudly.

However, he miscalculated the strength of the old door, and instead of simply banging loudly as he had intended, the kick sent the door bursting open. He stumbled forward in surprise, flailing to regain his balance. Cursing quietly, he braced himself to be chewed out by the drummer.

Looking up though, he found himself staring down not just his drummer, but his bassist too. Duff and Stevie had both shot up in bed at the sound of the door slamming open, their hair a tangled mess of blonde and a very notable lack of clothing on either of them.

For a few seconds, the three merely blinked at each other. The Axl broke into a slow, sly grin.

“Oh. My. _God_.”

Just like that, Duff and Stevie were broken from their stupor, both scrambling to pull the sheets over them, Stevie holding a pillow in front of her chest as she shrieked, “What the FUCK, Axl?” her eyes wide and face bright red.

Axl covered his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter, "I, uh, well, you see…"

"What's going oh-oh holy shit!" Slash stood there. "About fucking time!"

"Get out!" Stevie shrieked, but that just sent more people running to her room. Duff flopped onto his back, burying his face in his hands as their housemates crowded around their doorway.

Nikki and Tommy cheered when they peeked their heads in, “Yeah, dude, get it!” Vince wolf whistled, Baz yelled something about getting a camera, while Kelly and Mick stood in the hallway shaking their heads.

“Remind me why I agreed to this living situation?” Kelly sighed.

“Beats me. I always knew you were whacked in the head,” Mick mumbled. He then stepped forward, calling out, “Hey, like, half of you owe me fucking money now!” He was met with a chorus of groans as Axl, Baz, Nikki, and Tommy, reluctantly handed over crumpled dollar bills. 

“You were betting on us??” Duff’s indignant voice cried out.

Kelly snorted. He saw a dark shape out of the corner of his eye and when he turned he found Izzy standing beside him, a carefully neutral look on his face.

"Hey Izzy," Stevie waved at him, but Duff saw her light dim when he didn't even acknowledge her.

"Hey grumpy gus," Baz laughed. 

“Of course I’m grumpy, I got woken up by fucking Axl pounding on my door,” he grumbled, trying to cover for his sour mood.

“Hey, we _all_ got woken up by Axl,” Slash countered.

“He literally kicked my door in!” Stevie chimed in.

“He woke _me_ up nicely,” Sebastian smirked, resting his chin on the top of Axl’s head and winking as the rest of the group groaned and gagged.

“Yeah, well, in case you all forgot,” the red head huffed, “we’re supposed to be in a fucking band. I gave you all three days off, time to get the fuck back to work.”

"Can I at least put clothes on?" Stevie asked.

"Does she have to?" Tommy pouted. Duff glared at him.

"Guys, get out so Stevie can change," Kelly started pushing them out but stayed in the room. "Man, that was tough."

"Everyone means you too, Kelly," Stevie growled.

“Aw come on, it’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen before.” His teasing smirk dropped when a loud roll of thunder sounded above them and he sighed dramatically, “Fine, fine.” 

When the door finally closed behind him, Stevie moved the pillow from her chest to her face and groaned loudly into it. Duff pat her back sympathetically, “All things considered, I think that could have gone a lot worse.”

"Izzy looked pissed," Stevie sighed, "And Axl needs to learn to knock!" Duff noticed that Stevie's light was dim, like when she was sad. He pulled her close to him.

“Hey, maybe he really was just mad at Axl,” Duff wasn’t sure he himself believed that, but it certainly wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility, “Plus, he always looks at least a little pissed,” he teased.

"Tommy says he needs to get laid," Stevie giggled. There was a bang at the door.

"Hurry the fuck up or so help me…" Axl growled. Stevie sighed.

"Let's go," she told Duff. The both got dressed, Duff opting to just throw on his clothes from the day before which were laying on the ground. On their way out, Duff grabbed his bass from his room before they made their way over to the rest of the band.

On the other side of the house, between the living room and the kitchen, was a room that they were pretty sure was meant to be a dining room. But they had piled the household's various instruments, amps, and equipment into the room to turn it into a makeshift practice space. It was here that Duff and Stevie found Izzy, Axl, and Slash waiting for them.

"About time," Slash laughed, "Too busy working out that mattress?"

"Oh shut up," Stevie rolled her eyes and went to her drums. "I hope you're not out of tune, babies." She ran her fingers on the drums.

"Bet you want her to touch you like that," Slash elbowed Duff.

"Don't we have anything better to do, like fucking practicing our music?" Izzy snapped.

Stevie, Duff, and Slash all whipped their heads around to look at him, eyes wide at the rhythm guitarist’s outburst. Duff bit his lip, seeming conflicted, and Stevie looked like she wanted to cry, but before any of them could say anything, Axl darted over, throwing an arm around Izzy’s shoulders.

“Thank you! At least someone here is committed to the dream,” he ruffled Izzy’s hair, his hand slapped away almost immediately, and as Izzy stared down at his guitar, Axl sent a warning glance at the other three. “Well? Let’s get a fucking move on.”

Izzy risked a glance up at Stevie when Slash and Duff went to their places, and he felt his heart break. She looked so sad, and while she normally had a bright aura to her, today it was dim.

Fuck, what did he do?

The guilt ate at him, but he didn’t get too much chance to dwell on it. Axl was quick to start barking out orders, warming up his voice while the others checked their tuning, and anytime Izzy felt himself start to fall back into his dark thoughts, the red head would suddenly be there antagonizing him, poking his side and demanding that he replay the chorus of some song or accusing him of being off rhythm or clapping at him to play faster. The self deprecating thoughts couldn’t stand up to Axl’s snapping voice.

It wasn’t long before all of them finally were able to get lost in the music. They fine-tuned the songs they wanted to record next time they snagged some studio time, ran through some old favorites, and talked about a few melodies they hoped to expand on. Still, when they all agreed to call it a day, all it took was a glance at the two blondes for Izzy to feel his heart sink again. Placing his guitar on his stand, he didn’t even bother saying anything as he exited the room.

“Izzy-” Stevie’s voice called after him, but he ignored it, only walking faster. As he passed through the kitchen, he spared a moment to snag a bottle of whiskey off the counter before continuing up the stairs. As he ascended, he heard footsteps following after him.

“Iz.”

He walked faster, taking the stairs two at a time.

“Izzy, hang on!”

As he slipped through the door into his room, he hoped that maybe he would be left alone. He just wanted to drink, and wallow, and maybe break something. 

But there was no hesitation in the fist that banged on the door, “Let me in, Stradlin.” Axl’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was firm.

“Go the fuck away,” he growled back.

The knocking continued. Izzy’s door had been locked since the day he moved in. “I swear to God if you don’t open up this fucking door I’m going to kick it in, I’ve already done it once today, I’d fucking love to be two for two.”

Izzy pressed his fists against his eyes, his teeth grinding in frustration. Axl would do it, he knew he would. Glaring heatedly, he stormed over and threw the door open, “What, Axl? What the fuck do you want?”

“I _want_ to make sure my best friend is okay,” Axl bit back.

“I’m fine,” Izzy ground out in response, “Is that all?” He moved to close the door, but Axl threw his arm against it, forcing it back open.

“Come on, don’t fucking lie to me.” For a moment Axl looked like he was going to snap out something else, but then he paused. Sighing gently, his face softened, “Look... I’m sorry. About Stevie,” Izzy practically flinched at the name, but Axl continued, “I just… I’m here for you, okay? You don’t have to deal with it by yourself. I get it, man. I understand-”

“How the _fuck_ could you possibly understand how I feel?” Izzy suddenly snapped, throwing his arms out as the words spilled out of him like a broken dam, “You have no _idea _what it’s like! You have Baz! You _have_ the person you love, and you’re together and happy and… fuck!” He slammed his hand against the wall in frustration.__

____

____

Axl had taken a step back during the outburst, staring up at Izzy with wide eyes. There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other. Then Axl’s eyes narrowed.

“You think I don’t know what it’s like?” His voice was a low hiss, not loud or high pitched, but Izzy could still feel the power in it- could feel an ominous vibration in his sternum as the words hit him.

The singer took a step forward, and this time it was Izzy who backed away as he continued, “You _honestly_ think I don’t know what it feels like? To love someone who doesn’t love you back- who will _never_ love you back? You think I don’t understand feeling like the person you love more than anything is so close but still out of reach? That I've never had to watch them love someone else while I pieced myself back together by myself? Are you really that _fucking blind?!_ ” His final words were emphasized with a harsh shove, sending Izzy stumbling back a few steps.

Izzy blinked, speechless, trying to wrap his head around what was happening. Axl’s eyes looked glassy and wet even as he snarled quietly, “Fuck you, Jeff.”

Pivoting on his heel, Axl stomped out, slamming the door shut behind him. Izzy listened to the faint sounds of footsteps retreating downstairs before he sat heavily on his bed. For a few minutes he could only stare blankly at the floor.

Then he grabbed the whiskey bottle and took a long, long drink.


	7. Chapter 7

Stevie could only watch as Izzy rushed out, ignoring her call, Axl darting after him determinedly. Her heart ached at having caused the guitarist pain. She had spent so long assuming her feelings for both boys were unrequited that she felt a tinge of disbelief that he could be so distraught over her.

“That went well,” Slash muttered, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

“I’m going to my room,” Stevie whispered, running off. Duff groaned.

“Stevie, wait!” He called out to her, chasing after her. “Stevie!”

“He was so upset,” Stevie told Duff as they made their way into her room. “God…” She sat down on her bed and grabbed Mr. Cuddles, holding him close to her chest. “Duff, this screws everything up…”

“Not necessarily,” Duff wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to be soothing, “He’s upset because he thinks you don’t like him. You can explain and it’ll fix everything!”

Internally, Duff knew it was a bit more complicated than that. After all, Izzy liked _Stevie_ , not him, and there was no guarantee that he would be open to the type of relationship they had discussed, and if she was forced to choose between the two of them Duff felt a stab of certainty that he’d be the one let down gently…. But he just couldn’t stand to see her upset. So he shoved the insecurities down and smiled comfortingly as he rubbed her back.

“I don’t know if he’ll even listen to me,” She rested her head on Duff, “I mean, I wouldn’t listen to me if I was in his position.”

“Well, that’s just because you’re a stubborn little shit,” Duff teased.

“Are you calling me short you damn giant?” Stevie glared at Duff. Duff started laughing loudly.

“Of course not, Sunshine,” he snickered, “I’m calling you hardheaded.” 

Stevie huffed in offense, shoving a still laughing Duff lightly. Their joking was cut short as they heard the sound of a door slamming on the floor above them. They exchanged worried looks, and a few moments later they heard heavy footsteps and then another door slamming down the hall. Axl’s and Baz’s door.

Sighing, the sad, conflicted look returned to Stevie’s face. Duff hugged her close, “It’ll be alright. Let’s just… let him cool down a little, and then you can talk to him and clear everything up, okay?”

"Yeah…" she nodded. "Maybe we could get the three of us food and that will make him think we're sincere?"

"Brilliant idea babe." Duff kissed her.

~~~~~

Vince grinned widely as he slid across the countertop in the kitchen, seating himself next to where Kelly was reading the instructions on the back of a box of frozen pizza. “A pretty face _and_ you cook? You really are a catch,” the blonde drawled.

“Damn straight I am,” Kelly smirked back, “although you seem to be implying I’m gonna share, which I am definitely not.”

“Aw, don't be that way, Nickels!” Vince pouted, “Come on, you know what they say about the way to a man’s heart.”

“Through the third and fourth ribs.” He snickered as Vince gasped in offense.

"Did you hear that?" Kelly asked suddenly, looking around. 

"All I'm hearing is this tension between you, me, and that pizza." Vince smirked.

"No, it sounds like scratching," Kelly told Vince.

"Probably that so-called raccoon Tommy's been chasing," Mick grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. "Your dad is probably under the house."

"Which dad?" Vince asked.

"Neither of them are my dad," Kelly sighed.

“Don’t tell them that,” Mick replied.

"I hate all of you," Kelly rolled his eyes.

"Even me?" They heard a voice. Freezing, they all looked around in confusion.

Vince and Kelly had only a moment to notice Mick close his eyes and sigh heavily before they nearly jumped out of their skins as the door beneath the sink burst open. Vince screamed, high pitched and shrill while Kelly tripped over his own feet as he scrambled away from the petite figure crawling out of the cabinet.

“CC what the actual FUCK!” Kelly was clutching his chest as CC Deville stood and grinned at him, “How fucking long have you been here??” 

Beside them, Mick calmly snagged a bottle of vodka from the counter before turning and walking away without a word. 

“Awwwww,” CC pouted as he watched the guitarist leave.

“ _Focus, CC_!” Vince snapped, “What the hell are you doing here??”

"Well I _was_ sleeping until someone started slamming doors," CC leaned against the counter before turning to smirk at the bassit, "Hey Kelly. Looking good as always." Kelly sputtered and turned to go put the pizza in the oven while Vince glared.

Before they could say anything else, Stevie wandered in, jerking to a stop when she saw the blonde guitarist waving at her, “What the fuck?”

“That’s the mood for the night,” Kelly sighed.

“Why is-”

“Don’t,” Vince interrupted, “Just ignore him and maybe he’ll go away.”

“Wow, someone’s in a bitchy mood,” CC grinned.

"I was just fine until you interrupted the moment…" Vince spat.

"From what I could tell, the only moment was you being shot down," CC teased.

"Okay, I'm just gonna go now," Stevie backed out of the kitchen.

"Stevie, don't leave me!" Kelly begged, “Please! I’ll share my pizza with you!”

“Hey!” Vince’s voice was indignant.

“I just wanted to use the phone,” Stevie groaned, “I’m ordering food tonight.”

“Ooooh, what are you getting?” CC questioned with far too much enthusiasm.

Narrowing her eyes, the drummer huffed, “It’s not for you guys. It’s for… it’s for Duff and me,” she decided to just leave it at that.

Pouting, Vince leaned dramatically against Kelly’s side, “Why is no one is sharing tonight? You’re all so mean!”

“You guys give me a migraine,” Stevie sighed.

“You love us,” CC smirked.

“I don’t even know why you’re here!” Stevie exclaimed. 

CC shrugged, “I was taking a nap. Sue me.” Stevie groaned, grabbed the cordless phone, and marched into the living room.

“I’m moving out,” Kelly sighed. “Y'all can keep the house.” 

Vince started pouting, “Aw, don’t say that,” he leaned against the counter beside Kelly, “We’re not _all_ , bad, right?” he winked.

Before Kelly could respond, CC was snickering, “He’s just grumpy cause he needs to get laid,” he announced as he casually slapped Kelly’s ass.

“CC, shut up!” Vince hissed. Before he could respond, Mick made his way back in, grabbing CC’s arm and dragging him away.

“Can’t even hear myself think in this damn place,” Mick grumbled. “I’ll deal with him.”

Laughing, CC waved his fingers, “See you guys later! Good luck Kelly babe!”

Huffing, Vince turned back to the bassist, relieved that at least that was over with. “This place is crazy,” he grumbled, “Although, to be fair,” he grinned slyly, “I wouldn’t mind getting laid soon.”

“Well,” Kelly smiled. “If you want, we…”

“Hey guys!” Slash greeted as he came into the kitchen. “What’s up?” Vince groaned.

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?” Slash frowned, “What did I do?”

Kelly looked between the two of them, “Y’know, I was actually wondering-”

Suddenly there was the sound of crashing and loud swearing from what sounded like Nikki and Tommy as CC, apparently having escaped from Mick, ran through the kitchen again, diving back under the sink. “I was never here!!” He shouts as he slams the door shut to hide.

Nikki came sliding in, “What the fuck?? Where is he?!”

Vince dropped his head onto the counter, Slash stared at the cabinet wide eyed and confused, and Kelly realized forlornly that his pizza was burning.

“I’m moving,” he said to no one. “Stevie!" he shouted into the next room, "Will you order me food?”

“Why should I?” Stevie called back.

“I’ll take you to your favorite store at the mall!”

“Deal!”

Kelly turned off the oven, ignoring the smoke escaping from it, “I’ll deal with that later,” He muttered before walking out.

“Okay, what did you do to my son?” Nikki asked, “And where the fuck is CC?”

“Also, why the fuck is CC here?” Slash chimed in.

“Your son is fine and who knows why CC is anywhere,” Vince snapped.

“Wow, you’re bitchy,” Nikki gave him a smirk. “CC cockblock you too?”

“ _YES!_ ” Vince threw his arms in the air, turning and stomping out of the room before anyone could question him further. 

“He was trying to get with Kelly, wasn't he?” Nikki asked.

“He better not be,” Slash growled. Stevie finished hanging up with the restaurant just as Kelly stormed by.

“You okay Nickels?” She asked.

“No, but give me a half hour and I will be,” He headed up to his room.

Shaking her head fondly, Stevie looked back down at the phone in her hand. They had said the food would arrive in roughly 45 minutes. That was plenty of time to steel herself and plan what she wanted to say when she talked to Izzy.

Unfortunately, it was also plenty of time for her to freak the fuck out. Duff tried his best to keep her calm, but she couldn’t stop pacing back and forth in her room, flickering like a strobe light as she mumbled different ways to phrase her argument to herself.

“Okay, Sunshine, seriously,” Duff sighed as he stood, putting his hands on her shoulders to still her, “I understand you’re nervous. I’m nervous too. But you have _got_ to get a grip,” he grinned teasingly, feeling a small spark of relief when she huffed and smacked his shoulder playfully.

“I just don’t want to mess this up,” She told him. The doorbell rang and she went running to the door before people could steal her food.

“Back off!” Stevie growled when Tommy reached for the bags, “This is mine!”

“But, don’t you want to share?” He asked, pouting.

“This bag is Kelly’s. Maybe your son will share with…” 

Vince snagged the bag, “I’ll take it to him!” He called out, heading towards Kelly’s room.

“Goddammit!” Stevie and Tommy jumped, Slash appearing next to the door. Grumbling to himself, the guitarist stomped after Vince.

Groaning, Stevie clutched the bags of food to her chest, “I don’t have time for this,” she mumbled, turning to head back to her room where Duff was standing waiting in the doorway. Holding up the bags, she grinned weakly, “Well, we have our offering now. All that’s left is the actual conversation part.”

Duff tried to look reassuring, but he couldn’t hide that he was anxious too. “Right,” he shuffled on his feet, “So… should we…?” he trailed off, gesturing vaguely.

“Yeah...yeah…” She sighed. “Will you take the food? I’ll get the Izzy.” She handed Duff the food as she headed towards Izzy’s room. Take a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

“Go away Axl,” She heard Izzy growl.

“Not Axl,” She replied, “Duff and I got food and we wanted to talk to you. Please?”

Behind the door, Izzy dropped his head with a soft ‘thud’ against the wall. He turned to glance at the half empty bottle of whiskey on his side table, snatching it to take a quick swig, “Look,” he ran a hand over his face in frustration, “I’m sorry I made practice weird, you don’t need to tell me off or whatever. I’ll have my shit together tomorrow.” 

“I don’t want to tell you off,” She told him softly, trying to fight back tears. She wasn’t going to cry. “I just want to talk to you Iz…”

“Well, there’s nothing I want to talk about!” he snapped. He knew Stevie had a big heart, and she probably felt bad about breaking his. But he really didn’t want to stand there while she tried to let him down gently or whatever, “It’s fine, I’m fine, just go back to your boyfriend, okay?” That’s when he heard something on the other side of the door. Crying.

“S-sorry,” Stevie whispered, tears streaming down her face. Izzy’s heart hurt, hearing her soft sobs.

He didn’t want to see her. But he didn’t want her to cry even more. Rolling over, he slid through the wall next to his bed, gracefully landing on his feet to stand in the hallway outside, just a few feet away from where Stevie was standing in front of his door. 

“Izzy…”

“Fine, we can talk,” He sighed. “Just please stop crying.”

“Okay,” She wiped her eyes. “I got Mexican. I ordered your favorite. Duff’s waiting for us.” Izzy sighed but followed her to her room, where Duff had cleared off the table Stevie used to “customize” her t-shirts (and by customize, she meant butcher the hell out of them) and set the food up on it. He sat it at the foot of her bed, so the bed could be a seat, and got two chairs for the other two dinner guests.

Izzy nearly winced when he saw the set-up. This seemed very… formal for what he assumed was a pity party for him. But he really didn’t want Stevie to cry, so he figured the least he could do was grit his teeth and bare it. At least he was getting free food out of it.

He sat tensely in one of the chairs, looking around the room in order to avoid looking at either blonde, “So… what’s all this about?” he finally asked.

“Well, you see,” Stevie started as she opened her shrimp meal. “We, uh, wanted to discuss something with you.”

“And you can say no,” Duff added.

“But, I was talking to Kelly the other day…” Stevie started.

“Oh god, that’s never a good idea,” Izzy scoffed.

“Anyway,” Stevie shot a glance at him. “We were wanting to...we would like it if...you would join us.”

Izzy felt his brain short circuit, immediately dropping the taco he had hesitantly picked up, “Join you?” he repeated slowly. He was sure there was a more elegant way to phrase his thoughts, but he found himself blurting out, “I didn’t know you guys were into that.”

“We didn’t either until we started talking,” Duff admitted. “Because we both might kinda like you, and it really hurt to see you upset.”

“And of course, you can have time to think it over,” Stevie added. “Don’t think you have to rush. The offer isn’t going anywhere, no matter how much Kelly begs to take your spot.”

For a long moment, all Izzy could do was stare at his two bandmates and friends. Of all the ways he thought this conversation would go, this hadn’t even crossed his mind. It seemed too good to be true. So he figured it probably was.

Duff and Stevie were both too kind-hearted for their own good, Izzy knew that. As he took in their bright eyes and soft smiles, he realized that he had probably been too open with his heartbreak, had probably made the two of them feel guilty for their relationship and now they were just trying to offer him something to make him feel better. No matter how much he liked Stevie, and Duff, it didn’t change the fact that they probably just felt sorry for him and figured they could put up with a threesome once in awhile for his sake. That was all. Was he really so desperate and lovesick that he’d take the scraps they were offering him now?

"Yeah," He nodded, "Okay."

Yes. Yes he was.


	8. Chapter 8

The night was spent with Stevie, Duff, and Izzy just talking, drinking, and trying to figure things out. Izzy had opted to return to his own bed for the night, and Stevie and Duff didn’t press him to stay, even though Stevie did pout when he said goodnight.

“I hope he realizes this isn’t a joke,” Stevie yawned.

“I’m sure he knows,” Duff smiled, “Let’s get you to bed pretty girl.”

Despite drinking more than Izzy and Duff had, Stevie was up before them the next morning, preparing to make breakfast for, what she assumed would be just her, Duff, and Izzy. But she knew she couldn’t get away with that.

That being said, she was on the lookout for a wild CC Deville to come crawling out of the cabinets at any minute.

She was so focused on being prepared for the potential Poison guitarist, that she ended up nearly screaming when she tossed a towel onto the kitchen table and it landed on a camouflaged Slash.

“God fucking dammit, Slash!” Stevie clutched her chest as the guitarist grumbled, shaking his head to get the towel off his hair and becoming visible again, “WHY are you sleeping out here?”

“Good question,” he stretched his arms over his head, “I was having some drinks with Tommy and Nikki. I must have passed out and they left me here.” 

“That sounds about right,” She breathed. “Wait, since when do you have drinks with Tommy and Nikki?”

“Must have a death wish,” Vince commented as he came down the stairs with a satisfied grin on his face, “Morning guys! God, last night…”

“I don’t want to know,” Stevie turned away, missing the glare Slash shot him “I’ve gotta work on breakfast. You two, keep watch for CC.”

“We apparently need CC traps to go with the live traps Tommy wants to set up to catch that fucking raccoon,” Vince laughed, winking at Slash, who huffed and turned away. “Was it something I said?”

Stevie rolled her eyes as she started pulling items out of the fridge, “Vince, don’t be an ass.”

“That’s just his natural state,” Slash commented.

“If you think you can kill my good mood with your attitude you’re wrong,” Vince crossed his arms.

Ignoring the bickering rockers behind her, Stevie focused on the stove in front of her. Her cooking skills weren’t high class, but she figured she could handle some scrambled eggs and bacon, so she got started.

“I need Tommy to teach me to cook,” Stevie said to no one, “His cooking is amazing.”

“Yeah, if he kept cooking, I’d get fat,” Vince commented.

“Good,” Slash muttered under his breath. Before Vince could say anything, Kelly came down the stairs.

“What are you two bickering about?” He asked as he stretched to loosen his muscles. “It’s too early for this.”

“Apparently Vince is just planning on fighting everyone in Guns N’ Roses,” Stevie called over her shoulder.

“Hey!” Vince threw his hand up, “I’d never fight you, Stevie!”

“What are you talking about? I’ve seen you two bicker dozens of times,” Kelly chimed in.

“I can’t believe you’re all ganging up on me,” Vince huffed, “So rude.”

Snickering, Stevie finished the first pan of bacon, a few pieces maybe borderline burnt, but nothing any of the boys would complain about. She got started on a second batch before looking over her shoulder. “What are the odds of you guys actually making your own breakfast instead of stealing mine?”

“Slim to none,” Slash grinned. Stevie shook her head as Tommy and Nikki joined them.

“Good morning son,” Nikki patted Kelly on the shoulder.

“Oh my god that’s not over yet?” Kelly sighed.

“Nope!” Tommy smiled, “Oooo breakfast. I love food.”

“It pisses me off that you can eat and eat and never gain a pound,” Baz popped into the kitchen. “I want your metabolism.”

Stevie groaned at the increase in people in the kitchen. She wasn’t even that surprised when she went to place the second batch of bacon on the plate to find half of the first batch gone.

“Tommy!” She whined, spinning around and putting her hands on her hips, “At least let me finish before you steal my food!”

“What?” The speedster blinked, “I didn’t do anything!”

“Yeah right,” she rolled her eyes, “Look, I’m gonna make enough for everyone so just wait a few minutes!”

“But I-” Tommy flailed, sputtering as he tried to defend himself while the group chuckled at him. 

“Where’s Ax?” Slash asked as he turned to Sebastian, “You usually drag him out with you.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s probably not gonna be around today,” the teleporter smiled sadly, “He’s in a, y’know… a mood. I was just gonna take some food back to our room.”

Stevie frowned, “Oh. Well, I’m making some eggs in a minute, but you can take some-” she turned to gesture to the plate of bacon only to find it nearly empty. “Oh come on!” She snapped in frustration.

“Third cabinet on the left,” Mick stated nonchalantly as he shuffled into the room.

Blinking in confusion, Stevie opened the cabinet in question and cursed loudly.

“Oh for fucks sake, CC!” 

“I was hungry! You said you were gonna share!” The guitarist pouted around a mouthful of bacon.

“Why are you even here?” Tommy asked. “And why are you in a cabinet?”

“Alright, come on,” Mick pulled CC out of the cabinet, dragging the other guitarist out. Stevie sighed.

“I have a headache now,” She groaned. Tommy went to finish up the cooking while Duff and Izzy finally joined everyone. Once there was enough food ready, Sebastian was quick to make two plates and retreat back to his and Axl’s room, the tall singer awkwardly avoiding even looking in Izzy’s direction. 

Not that Izzy noticed. He was too caught up in his own head as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to act around Duff and Stevie now. The night before, they had talked as if he would be another boyfriend, but that could have just been for his benefit. It didn’t mean they would appreciate him invading their space in front of the others. Did Duff even like guys? 

It was too early for this. He needed coffee.

"Morning sweetie," Stevie greeted Duff. "Morning honey," She kissed Izzy's cheek, making him blush. "I'm gonna go lay on the couch. Fucking CC gave me a migraine." She walked off, mumbling about how he even got in there.

She had just flopped back onto the couch when Kelly suddenly entered her field of vision, the bassist grinning widely as he leaned over the back of the couch.

“I couldn’t help but notice,” he smirked, “you gave a certain guitarist a little smooch this morning.”

Stevie grinned back at him, “Hey, it was your idea!”

“Yeah, but you were so shy and nervous, I didn’t think you’d have the balls to actually do it,” he teased, laughing as Stevie punched him hard on the shoulder. “But for real,” he softened, “it all worked out?”

“Yeah, I think so,” She smiled. “He said yes at least...” Her eyes darkened a little before she shook her head and grinned, “So now you really don’t get to tap this anymore.”

“I hate you,” Kelly laughed, “But don’t worry. I sowed my wild oats last night.”

“Kelly, it’s the 20th century. You don’t have to talk like an old farmer.”

“I am appalled you called me a farmer,” Kelly said in mock annoyance, making Stevie laugh.

“I seriously have a migraine though,” Stevie told him, to which Kelly responded by yelling:

“Duff! Izzy! Come help Stevie!” He turned to look at her, with her eyes scrunched up, “You’re welcome.”

The two men quickly wandered into the living room, Izzy clutching his coffee like a lifeline while Duff chewed on a piece of toast. “What’s wrong?” The blonde asked, mouth still full, “Stevie, are you alright?”

"Just a headache…"

"You said migraine!" Kelly yelled, making Izzy give him a death stare.

“If she said migraine,” he replied, softly but coldly, “then why the fuck are you making it worse with your shouting?”

“Shit…” Kelly smiled sheepishly. “I’m just gonna go…” He quickly left, leaving Izzy and Duff with Stevie.

“I’m okay guys,” Stevie waved them off.

“Are you sure?” Duff questioned quietly, tossing his toast onto the coffee table carelessly as he approached the drummer, “Do you want me to grab Mick?”

Izzy shuffled uncomfortably. He didn’t want to leave, but he felt like he was intruding. 

"Izzy, baby, tell Duff he's overreacting," Stevie smiled at Izzy. "I just need some cuddles from my boys."

It took a moment for the guitarist to respond- his brain short-circuited every time someone called him a pet name, and he was still trying to figure out his place here. It had been less than twelve hours and all his assumptions about what this relationship was had started to crumble in his hands. And he had no idea if that was good or bad.

“You heard the glowstick,” he finally responded, forcing a wry grin on his face as he turned to Duff, “Keep calm and get cuddling.”

Stevie smiled and reached for them, wanting cuddles. She sighed happily as they settled down by her. 

"Thank you guys," She smiled. She kissed each other their cheeks and giggled when Izzy’s cheeks turned red, “Maybe today we can just be lazy? Apparently Axl might be MIA today, so we won’t have to like, seriously rehearse,” a small frown crossed Izzy’s face, but Stevie didn’t notice and carried on, “Although you know I’m always down to jam with you guys,” she grinned widely.

“That sounds awesome. Maybe we could switch instruments. I bet Izzy would look good playing your drums.” Duff suggested.

“Oh, I know he would!” Stevie said excitedly.

Izzy rolled his eyes, a small smirk of amusement on his face and his cheeks still slightly pink. Unable to resist, Stevie leaned forward to give him a quick kiss on the lips. But her plan was foiled when instead of feeling lightly chapped lips, she instead felt nothing but air as she fell forward, landing across the couch with a soft ‘oof’.

“Shit, fuck, I’m sorry,” Izzy stood rapidly, his body gliding through Stevie and Duff. His shoulders hitched up around his ears, a guilty and embarrassed look on his face, and the two blondes would bet money that he was still intangible even as he stood out of their reach.

While Slash definitely had the worst control of his abilities among the group, Izzy wasn’t far behind, especially when it came to unconscious control. When he was calm or in a good mood, he was fine. But the second he started feeling emotional or frazzled, he had trouble staying solid. And emotional and frazzled were understatements as far as how he had been feeling the past week.

"Are you OK?" Stevie questioned as Duff helped her sit up. "Did I do something?"

"No," Izzy sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's ok." Stevie smiled at him, the light brighter. "As long as you're not falling into the girls locker room…"

"Axl fucking told you about that?" Izzy sighed. "Fucking Bill…" The redhead loved to tease him for the many mishaps that had occurred when his powers first emerged in their first year of high school. He was a little convinced that Axl had some sort of secondary power that allowed him to always be present anytime Izzy embarrassed himself. 

Frowning to himself, he wondered if he should try to talk to Axl about what happened the other day, but before he could dwell on it his thoughts were interrupted when Duff chimed in.

“Hey, don’t stress dude, we all had shit happen when our abilities popped up,” he grinned, “For like, the first year or something anytime I got startled a bunch of fog would surround me.”

“Aw, that’s so cute!” Stevie laughed, “Little baby smoke machine!”

“Hey! Slash told me about you blinding your school photographer!” Duff told her.

“It’s not my fault! He told me to give my biggest smile. I couldn’t help it,” Stevie defended.

“Nice to know nothing has changed,” Duff teased.

“Izzy, help me out here,” Stevie begged. “Please?”

Huffing out a laugh, the guitarist shook his head fondly, “I mean, you do have a very… bright smile.”

Duff laughed as Stevie pouted, crossing her arms petulantly, “Aw, it’s not a bad thing! You’re our Sunshine!” He wrapped his arms around her, the drummer unable to keep a straight face as he rested his chin on her head.

“Good thing you two are cute or we’d have a real problem,” She told them as she snuggled into Duff. Izzy was about to say something when Tommy came barreling into the room.

“Guys! Guys! Look at this book I found in Nikki’s shit!” Tommy tossed a heavy book on the table and everyone got a chill down their spines.

“Well that certainly looks… ominous,” Duff said slowly. The book was thick and leather bound, black with red writing in a language that didn’t look familiar to any of them. Stevie reached out and touched the book. When she did, the wind picked up a little bit.

“Wasn’t me,” Duff told them when they all looked at him.

“Let’s crack this baby open!” Tommy said, excitedly. “Maybe there’s naked pictures in there.”

“Probably all of you,” Izzy smirked and Tommy rolled his eyes, but then looked a little nervous. Picking up the book again, he flipped it over to glance suspiciously at the back cover, tracing his finger over the strange symbol on the back. Shivering slightly, he put it back on the coffee table, squeezing to sit on the couch beside the other three.

“Alright, the curiosity is killing me!” With that, he flipped the cover open, quick like ripping off a bandaid. The four rockers leaned over to look at the first page. 

Duff, Stevie, and Izzy, frowned at the words written there. “What the Hell?” Izzy stated.

“Seriously,” Tommy chimed in, “What sort of book needs a disclaimer like that?” Three sets of eyes snapped to look at the speedster. When he noticed them staring, he blinked in confusion, “What?”

“You can read Latin?” Duff questioned.

“Huh? No way, isn’t that like, a dead language or something?”

“Can you read this?” Duff pointed to the page.

“Yeah?”

“It’s in Latin,” he squinted at the words, “at least I’m pretty sure it is. Definitely not English though.”

Tommy’s eyes widened comically, looking between the figures beside him and the book on the table. Then with a gust of superspeed, he slammed the cover shut, huddling against the back of the couch away from the book, “How much did I snort this morning?”

"Whatever it was, you should share," Stevie told him.

"What did it say?" Izzy quizzed Tommy. 

“It said ‘Tommy, I’m gonna kick your fucking ass’.” The group jumped, turning around to find Nikki scowling at them. Stalking forward, he snatched the book off the table as Tommy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Y’know, that’s actually pretty close to what it said.”

"Wait, how do you know what it says?" Nikki asked. 

"Uh, well, you see…"

"Tell me what this says?" Nikki held out the book and pointed to a small part that no one could read, except Tommy. 

"Property of Cherie Curry and Lita...Ford...oh fuck…."

“What? What’s wrong?” Izzy asked.

“Nothing!” Nikki and Tommy blurted out in sync. There was a long pause, Tommy fidgeting in his seat while Nikki glared at him and hugged the book protectively to his chest.

“Oh gee, look at the time,” Tommy stood nervously, “I think I hear Mick… somewhere.... Sorrybabedidn’tmeantobyyyye!” and with that, the drummer was gone in a blur.

“Dammit, T-Bone! You can run but you can’t hide!” The skin around Nikki’s eyes glowed orange as he ran off to track down his boyfriend, leaving the three Guns members to stare after him in confusion.

"What just happened?" Stevie asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to go raid Kelly’s prohibition room," Izzy sighed, heading straight for the basement.


End file.
